On Tue, 1 Oct 2019 20:48:19 -0700, "Vareck Bostrom (via tml list)"
<xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote to Freelance Traveller:

>Part of the problem is that there’s really only so much that can be said about Traveller in its base form without rehashing the same discussions from two or three decades ago. Another part of the problem is that technology has moved a lot since the mid 90s, and a lot of what I want to say about or read about Traveller has a lot of value when it is visually supported, and email is really not a good form for that. Particularly when even HTML email is considered sort of a faux pas and embedded images just about forbidden.

The graphics limitation cuts both ways - looked at positively, it ...
encourages ... you to really think about what you're trying to say, and
cast it in a way to not need the thousand words to replace the picture.
Sometimes it can't be done, and you need the graphic. But honestly? If the
list software allows it, I don't have an objection to attaching pictures,
_as_long_as_people_don't_go_overboard_. Text should be inserted as text,
not as files, and I can't think of an instance where ft00pid HTML trix were
actually necessary to communicate the point.

As far as "only so much... in its base form", well, this is also a good
place to toss out and discuss Doing It Your Way - or Doing It Someone
Else's Way. I'd love to see threads on (say) Travellerizing the Liaden
Universe, or the Vattaverse, or the Jao Empire universe, or Can The Special
Corps (from the Stainless Steel Rat series) Be Imported Into A Traveller
Universe, And What Would Its Career Tables And Chargen Look Like?. And
that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure that if I announced the desire
to do a Religion In Traveller Theme Issue, we could get some relevant
discussions going here, which in turn might inspire people to write
articles for the Theme Issue...

>For example, when discussing the regina-assiniboia system gravitational gradient, in facebook it’s pretty easy to just insert an image to the post, and here I have to take the trouble of uploading to an image host and then posting that link: https://i.imgur.com/Raa8ell.png <https://i.imgur.com/Raa8ell.png> and for archival purposes who knows how long that host will be around.
>
>Or discussing xboat networks and communication speeds across the travellermap setting: https://i.imgur.com/a3oR1uB.png <https://i.imgur.com/a3oR1uB.png> , or discussing surface features and routes on Regina: https://i.imgur.com/DKfRkuS.png <https://i.imgur.com/DKfRkuS.png> or making attempts at mapping the constellations in the sky of Earth to the 3I: https://i.imgur.com/8gYwoQk.png <https://i.imgur.com/8gYwoQk.png> (the arrows representing the approximate direction in the sky of the Wow! signal, compressed to 2 dimensions). A lot of this kind of thing is harder to talk about in text format than it is when there is visual support.
>
>Facebook isn’t great for this because writing math in facebook sucks.
>
>It is a nice thing about email that there is no demand for a real-time or near-real-time response. The flip side of that is conversations take months.

... which gives you a chance to really think about your response, and make
sure that it says what you want it to say.

>On the plus side of Facebook, Marc Miller is at least somewhat active in the various Traveller groups on facebook, so it's sort of worth having discussions there for the occasional canonical response.

My primary objection to FB and most social media is that I'm not the
customer, I'm the product, so my opinions on their policies don't matter.
And one of the policies I object to is uneven enforcement of TOS, amounting
to censorship, while still claiming the protections of TCPA s230.

>What are the Other Places That Are More Ephemeral, other than Facebook, MeWe and perhaps Reddit?

Them, and their imitators, plus any forum that doesn't allow me to do bulk
downloads of messages for a personal archive or to read-and-respond
off-line.

>On Oct 1, 2019, at 4:50 PM, Jeff Zeitlin <xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:
>
>In the run-up to TravellerCON/USA, I'm seeing ZERO traffic. It didn't used
>to be this way, not even when we were having teething pains because of host
>changes.
>
>I really don't want to get tied to forums and "Social Networks"; I like to
>keep an archive, and I like to be able to download when I'm not at my
>computer, and read and respond at my leisure - especially if I'm having
>network problems and need to let stuff accumulate until the network
>problems are resolved, and still not miss anything. Unlike email and nntp,
>Social Networks and Forums simply don't allow that; I essentially have to
>be able to participate in real-time or risk missing a lot.
>
>Can we somehow resuscitate the list? Can we possibly arrange feeds or at
>least summaries from Those Other Places That Are More Ephemeral?
>
>
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®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2018. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com

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