State of the List - 6/1/07
CycloFiend
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June 2007 - #1
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Things have been moving along pretty darned well for the Rivendell Bicycle
Works Owner's Bunch List during it's first couple months. We seem to have
pushed away from the dock without running aground or plowing over anything.
Hopefully, you have enjoyed the group and found it to be both entertaining
and instructional. It's been a real pleasure to continue the conversation of
the earlier bikelist.org RBW list and I look forward to more Rivendell tour
tales, tech talk and the odd product preview.
As it is always easier to keep your boat on course when it's pointed the
right way to begin with, I thought that it might make some sense to comment
now, with the wind at our backs and calm seas surrounding us, on the list in
general.
First off, again, let me thank everyone who has followed this list to its
new location, made comments, asked questions or given answers while
maintaining an encouraging tone in their posts.
Any discussion is only as good as the words we share, and it seems evident
that people have been weighing their opinions, and taking the time to make
sure that they are in keeping with the spirit and topic of the RBW Owners'
Bunch.
I feel strongly that we insure the vitality of this list by maintaining the
focus. Many of you are veterans of other lists, and some of you even
remember the dial-up days when Usenet had mostly good info, with the odd
crank here and there. Dunno if you've been there in a bit, but when I
finally left a few years ago, the ratio had been altered significantly.
The same sort of increasing noise has moved into a lot of other forum and
list discussions, and while some of the change has to do with the sheer
volume of people accessing the net these days, it rests squarely with the
attitudes and behavior of everyone.
In short, we all make this discussion what it is. The core attraction of
this list remains a reasonably low traffic and focused discussion on RBW
products and designs. Other lists have a broader spectrum and invite a
wider variety of topics, and many times those may be a better venue for more
general comments.
I worry a little that mentioning this might tend to stifle contributions,
but semi-public forums always seem to suffer what the project managers call
"scope creep", so it makes sense to me to bring it up from time to time.
We're all going to verge off-topic now and again, but we're also mature
enough to recognize it and not spiral off on too many tangents.
Just to restate it, I think things have been going very well so far, and
felt it was worth just considering and acknowledging that a bit as we move
forward.
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Projects and Features
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On the Google Group Pages:
I've created a few pages* here -
http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/web
*For me, the Google Groups page building software is clunky, slow and tends
to render oddly, so it's much quicker for me to create pages within the
Cyclofiend site.
Cyclofiend.com Updates
The Cyclofiend RBW page has been inverted, so that it moves in a more
blog-like fashion (newest stuff at the top of the page) -
http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw
RBW links have been aggregated onto that page, and there are now separate
pages for Bleriot, Quickbeam and A. Homer Hilsen bicycle models. I'm going
to add some Reader Scans about the AHH "Intro" pretty soon, much the way I
did on the Quickbeam page.
If you want to see all of the Rivendell bikes in the Current Classics
Gallery, here's where they are gathered:
http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/cc-maker.html#rivendell
I'm trying to finish off the Weekend #3 Writeup, but just got a bit slammed
this week. The last part is semi-written and mostly outined, so hopefully
soon...
RBW PDF Newsletter
I mentioned this idea to a few people on the RBW Weekend, and the response
was reasonably positive. The thought is to do a 4 page e-newsletter in Adobe
PDF format, which could be emailed or downloaded to those who are
interested. It would probably help if others wanted to submit articles of
regional interest, RBW outings, etc. It might aggregate some of the info on
the list, but would hopefully expand upon it.
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Statistics & Housekeeping
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List began: March 26, 2007
Members: 315 (Up from "0")
Activity: Medium activity (up from "Low" for the first two months)
In addition to email delivery, the list can be viewed via the web at -
http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch
If you wish to turn off or restart email delivery, change to digest mode,
update your profile or make other changes, simply log in at the page above
and make the changes you desire.
As stated, this list is a discussion of things Rivendellian in nature and is
not associated with Rivendell Bicycle Works or its employees and staff. If
you have specific questions for Rivendell Bicycle Works regarding customer
service or other issues, you should contact them directly.
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Ending Note
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I'd be more than happy to continue the discussion on any of the topics
mentioned above, but in the interest of clarity, it might make sense to
either email me directly or to create a new topic thread specific to your
comment.
Thanks again for your contributions and enjoyment of the list.
Your list admin,
-- Jim
--
Cyclofiend Bicycle Photo Galleries - http://www.cyclofiend.com
Current Classics - Cross Bikes
Singlespeed - Working Bikes
Philip Williamson
(shifting away from the nautical theme), but I like it. It seems like
some folk speak up here who didn't weigh in so much on the old list.
It's good.
It's one of the two lists I subscribe to now, both
low-traffic-high-interest (to me). I do still search the iBob archives
for Jan's postings, because it's like getting a free Bicycle Quarterly
update every month, but for the most part I don't miss the higher
traffic lists. I'm enjoying more and posting less.
I reeallly like the ride reports, especially if they're linked to a
photo or two.
Philip
cyclofiend
> list discussions, and while some of the change has to do with the sheer
> volume of people accessing the net these days, it rests squarely with the
> attitudes and behavior of everyone.
Another quick lunch-time comment -
when I said "other forum and list discussions", I was referring to
forums/lists _other_ than this one.
-- Jim