[TowerTalk] This List & Possibilities de W4AN

[Bill Fisher]

Dear TowerTalkers,

K7LXC approached me many years ago about starting this list.  It was a great
idea, and I could not have created my station without it.

In the early days there was a lot of great information, and very little
fluff.  Not so many off-topic posts and the daily volume was reasonable.  As
the list has grown, the signal-to-noise level grew to such a level that many
very busy people (myself included) could not manage to stay subscribed
because of the investment in time.  This is of course unfortunate, because
there were some very smart guys (myself not included) who posted some great
stuff here who are now not subscribed.

Part of the problem is that this reflector caters to a VERY broad range of
topics.  I am interested in about 10% of the posts that are made these days.
For instance, I'm very interested in posts regarding lightening protection,
but don't care anything about the best tribander study (sorry Steve).

Last year I co-founded a company that has developed a platform for creating
web sites for communities of people.  One of the very hard problems we
recently solved is creating an integrated mailing list and web-based forums
application.  It is kind of like eGroups, only at your domain.

We are about to release our new platform.  One of the things that I would
like to do is create a place for focused ham radio discussions.   I do not
have time to manage any new lists, but if anyone is interested in starting
and managing a focused list, I'll provide the means.  Please drop me an
email with your idea.  I'll discuss it with Steve, and then get you started
if it looks good.

I would personally like to start lists dedicated to lightning protection &
grounding, hilltop radio QTHs, and remote-control stations.  I can probably
manage these for awhile, but long term will need to find a volunteer.


Spoke Forums Features & Benefits
--------------------------------

-Subscribe via email or read on the web.
-Post on the web site or via email.
-Individual emails or daily digest.
-WYSIWYG rich-text editor:  Allows insertion of images, links, HTML tables
and other formatting when posting via the web.
-File attachments
-Notifications:  Be notified of new posts to threads that interest you.
-View by message or by thread.
-Send posts to friends.
-Fast search capability
-New content indicator:  If there are new posts to a thread that you have
not yet read, you will see a small glyph indicating there is new content
while in the thread view.
-Email subscriptions and notifications all managed via the web.  No need for
cryptic commands sent to list-bot email address.
-Posts can be auto-approved or require approval.
-Replies can be auto-approved or require approval.
-List management done completely via the web.
-Lists can be managed by multiple people.

73

Bill Fisher, W4AN
Spoke Technologies, Inc. - www.spoke.net


List Sponsor:  ChampionRadio.com - Trylon self-supporting towers,
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