TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Thanks for the kind words about the Milestones Calendar (http://plus.calendars.net/fairport). It's been a labour of love.

Friends have told me that both I and it were being talked about here, so I thought I'd take a rare look.  ;)

For those new(ish) to Fairport communication on the Internet, and who ask "who is this Widds" - the answer is that this Widds is/was a very active member of the Fairport email list who is/was against the setting up of this board in the first place, as I considered (rightly) that it would detract from and dillute what was then a very lively, vibrant email list. I don't post here very often for that reason, and because I'm usually too busy doing other things to keep up with a bulletin board rather than email - but those are old and boring arguments.

As for Judy's contribution to the band's history, of course it is not adequately reflected in one calendar entry. But because it's a calendar, any such contributions/events need to be linked to a date. I'd be very keen to receive any suggestions for suitable dates connected to Judy's time in Fairport, or indeed any other events in the bands' history. Email me at fcdates@blueyonder.co.uk

Oh, and by the way Judy, we have met at Cropredy. I can't recall whether I bit you or not  ;)


(...For reference, this topic was extracted from one entitied "Through the Year with Fairport" which can be found  here (http://www.talkawhile.co.uk/yabbse/index.php?topic=10989.0). Cheers Nick ...)

bit me? :o :o :o

I'll try and find some accurate details to send

Jude

I've just read Widds' post above (still haven't worked out how to quote yet, so won't paste bits of it in here).  A lot of us here are relative newcomers to all things Fairport on the internet, so don't know the history that has obviously upset a few people.

I don't know how an "e-mail list" works, having never been part of one, but surely there's room for all of us??  I think there must be some members of both Widds' "list" and Talkawhile on here (Chris?) as I've seen mention of the FC List before and have even linked to bits of it (the Cropredy info pages, now mostly on the FC website, are excellent,)  but you have to subscribe, and that puts me off as there's nothing to see to show you what you get when you do!!  Perhaps someone can enlighten me?

Can't we all be friends?  We all love Fairport and love reading about them!!  And Widds, I'm sure you don't bite really! ;) 

Yeah, I'm a long-standing member of both, and partake in both whenever anything interesting appears on there. I also ensure that anything interesting appears in both places....

It's rerally a matter of choice - you've got this forum, meaning you have to be online while you're reading it. The email 'list' means getting a series of emails - you both send emails with your comments & receive others from other members. These emails arrive in your inbox (in date / time order if everything is working) and as such, can be downloaded & read at your leisure offline. You choose which you wish to reply to, if any (preferably after reading them all so that you don't repeat something someone else has just said!).

There is also a 'digest' which is usually one big email a day, containing a list of all the individual emails posted in the last 24 hours), usually at 6pm each day. This helps to keep the number of emails down. However, if you find that you want to reply often, individual emails are easier to reply to.

It does take less time to read the emails that even just the Fairport board on this forum, so you pays your money & takes your choice really.

The difference between the mailing list (est. 1997?) and this forum -speaking rather subjectively as someone who simply likes the forum better- seems to me that in the former you have to wade through loads of gibberish, blah-blah and occasional nastiness (not to mention those people who include the whole message they're replying to, which makes the digest too often near unreadable) whereas this forum is neatly set up and as a user you can comfortably skip loads of subjects which for him/her aren't interesting, and focus on those which are.

I used to be a very active member on the emailing list from 1997 till 2000 or so. Loads of people from the olde List days have unsubscribed over the years as things got sometimes unpleasant and way too often downright boring ... and to me it seems to have evolved into a discussion list of occasionally very, very pedantic people. Why am I still on it (as a lurker) - I really don't know. Am I sad?

But I find this forum so much more pleasant. So it's up with the fez as far as I'm concerned  [;-) (sorry James!)

Really though, I'm sure there's a place for both a mailing list and a forum (they've both existed for a while now) ... in the end I have no idea why Widds says the forum "detracts" (well, he does consider this, quote, "rightly" ... so I am sure he must be right). Live and let live; fans who wish to communicate with each other can surely make up their mind what they prefer: email discussions or a forum. Or they don't have to prefer anything and they can happily be active on both. There's no need for an Us and Them - as Chris says, it's all down to what you prefer. I happen to prefer the forum and I say that as a previously very active mailing list user.

Topic drift alert, though. Yellow card! ;-)

I'm not entirely sure why a comparison is being drawn at all.

The mailing list is purely about Fairport Convention. Because it works on emails, it's very important that it stays on topic, as otherwise it would soon become overwhelming and confusing.

This board is very broadly based around the Fairport genre and is designed to handle dozens of simultaneous topics.

It was started when un-metered Internet access became common and so bulletin boards were suddenly much more popular. (I stumbled a across an alumni one and thought it was rather fun.)

The other main different is that this board is moderated and the mailing list isn't. That's just personal preference.

And just to stay completely not on topic, I did try the FC list but got totally confused.

I like it here :-*

Jude

So do I.  I don't really want to go anywhere else! ;D

And i'll red card meself in a minute but...
I agree with Koho and would add this. I've been a member of the mailing list since 1999/2000 and it was one of the main avenues for FC fans to exchange views, reviews etc. I for one wasn't totally happy when the Board was set up as I liked getting emails in my inbox every day and being able to read them when I wanted. I felt that having to log onto a board to find out what was happening would take up too much of my time.
But, although in the early days of the board the discussion on the mailing list was still frequent and diverse it was soon apparent that a large number of 'members' had disappeared. Eventually I presumed they had found their way to the board and wandered across myself.
I agree it is a different way of communicating compared to a mailing list but have to agree with others that the discussion here is far more diverse, less pedantic, and, usually more passionate (thanks Ces [;-) and sorry James)

I think amongst other things its a sign of times moving on and BBs replacing mailing lists (at least for discussion).

I do think it sad though that some still look on it as us & them. Each to their own I say. I happen to prefer the board most of the time but still 'lurk' on the mailing list (must be careful not to bump into koho ;)), as there are interesting and fun discussion to be had there as well. Just in a different way.

If you got as many business emails as I do, to say nothing of the plethora of jokes of varying degrees of funniness sent by friends/pals etc, you would be glad of the calm and tranquillity offered by the Board, to say nothing of the photos of the contributors. (Not mine, I haven't got a digital camera, living out in the wilds- we don't even have gas in the village)

M of F

I think the Fairport List was set up in 1996, certainly before '97 anyway.

There was a very sprightly community there and still is to some extent now. I still receive emails and read them periodically. There's some interesting stuff gets posted. I still think it's a useful medium but, as others have said, the tone is different from the board.

I still use the Turnpike dial-up programme to connect and that organises the mailing list very effectively into threads. Don't ask me how I originally subscribed though, it was so long ago.

For me this Board beats the List hands down, having said that, I think the World Wide Web is plenty big enough for both, indeed all Forums and Lists. If you don't like or are not interested in a particular place......don't go to it. That's what I do anyway, if a place looks as if it might be interesting I have a look see.....if it turns out to be boring or rubbish or just not my kind of thing I don't go back. I can't see the need for being 'nasty' about anywhere really, you pays your money you takes your choice.
And anyway........Talkawhile is best ;) ;)

Mic

As I understand it, The List comprises mostly members who refuse to have their free speech edited (as is quite rightly their right), and the Board those who don't mind the Pravda and Big Brotheresque Macchiavellian puppetry employed on them by The Moderators under their shadowy nefarious figurehead. Or 'Colin', if you prefer. Personally, I don't mind being mothered - I've asked for a couple of amendments myself in the past, and I think that helped avoid unnecessary offence being caused. I'd be interested to see what's being said on The List about this thread but, tellingly, not interested enough to sign up. I'd heartily recommend further investigation on the part of curious readers however, as the easiest mind to make up is always your own.
Skirky  [;-)  

Errrrr......zilch, nuffing, sweet f.a. ;D

Possibly because they know it'll get reported here, possibly because they care about as much as you don't.... ;D

'We' Chris, surely?  ::) ;)
SK

Yeah, Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

Four posts good, two posts bad.

It's a knack... 8)
SK

I can't help feeling, that in the interest of irony, I should do a spot of moderating here.

Yes. Go on Colin.

Cut and slash. Cut and slash.

I know, you could change the smiley in Skirky's last post. I think it is unsuitable.

Colin says: Well here's a smiley for you. Naughty Sandy (http://www.itisyou.co.uk/spank.gif)

These crypto-fascist tendencies are very worrying, head Vogon.

I mean ..... why have they taken so long to surface?  :o  ;D  ;)

Resistance is futile!

(OOh! What a give away!)

Way back when, I tried to sign up to the list and received a totally incomprehesible email from majordomo in reply - containing the phrase "command not recognised " at frequent intervals, followed by lines and lines about lists which didn't seem to make any sense (to me). I gave up and retreated to the arms.
I asked my computer literate son & he wasn't sure either!

Yeh me too, I gave up having tried 2 or 3 times to sign up, I fink I must be too fick or something  ???

I was on the list from 1997. I gave it up when it became the totally boring preserve of one or two people who thought they were self appointedly funny or interesting. They weren't. it's not a problem the bulletin board suffers from thankfully.

Me too thought it was just me and gave up!

I persevered and signed up to the list but found the emails I was recieving were incomprehensible.

Here you can at least back track through threads to see what they're on about.

Not that I have a problem with the FC List at all.

I just don't think my brain works that way.

Jude

I think it was the almost constant sniping and back biting on the list that got to me the most.
I still don't understand the necessity for the snide comments about Talkawhile that were rife there for a while. I mean, you just don't get that kind of pettiness here do you? E.G. SftBH have just set up their forum......they "announced" it on this board......now I haven't seen anyone jumping up and down and pulling their hair out about it, and I think that's because we are a bit special here maybe, we see that there is plenty of room for everyone and that there is no need for childish temper tantrums. Quite the contrary in fact......the board and it's moderators encourage new ventures, and invariably support new ideas and bands.
That is the beauty of this forum, we are like a family, and as such prefers to encourage rather than criticise..............healthy debate is encouraged but always kept to the topic and not allowed to descend into a slanging match...........and that is the quality that Talkawhile has that, (for me) the List doesn't.

It's a big WWW and room for all.

Mic

For a while there, the FC list felt exactly like that, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it was just me thinking this, a relative newbie then on the internet, marvelling at the wonders of being in direct touch with people all over the world who have a love for the same subject. i.e. Fairport. In 1998 there was a big list meet at Cropredy - when all of us walked around in "Meet On The Net" t-shirts which said on the back "Fairport Convention haven't heard of YOU either" (a great line in daily life, though not so much at Cropredy of course), and somehow it did feel like a big family. I did a whole lot of emailing then, and tape/CD treeing, etc etc. Somehow that whole feeling slipped, especially after a particularly nasty episode in 1999 where a "troll" misbehaved atrociously -list oldies active over here will remember this- and people left in bunches, while others took over as regulars and the feel changed. 'Twas never the same after that as far as I'm concerned and I stopped being an active member. Then again maybe that was a natural thing, as communicating with loads of people all over the world became quite normal, in time. I still cherish quite a number of contacts with people I met through the FC List, most of them aren't even a member of it anymore.

D'you know - I wondered who you lot were...  :)
SK

Colin will obviously moderate this thread .............

When the paperwork has been signed in triplicate, lost down the back of the sofa, and buried in a peat bog for three years.

That is, if he has finished dealing with the paperwork needed to prevent his grandmother being fed to the ravenous bugblatter beast of thall.

 ;D ;D

Paul

Don't start me off, Bazza... I feel a whole litany coming on.... where's me shillelagh  8)

So did I and I would have loved one of those t.shirts!  [;-)

I have two..... 8)

But they were list-shirts. ::)

I guess this is as good a time as any to say I have recently ceased lurking here and subscribed, after having been a regular on the FC List for some years (and still there too).  I can see the benefits of both, but one of the main ones here atm is the actual amount of conversation happening.

Those who have been put off by any sniping on the FCList should head over to the RT List sometimes, which can often be much worse (like right now, mainly due to the usual antagonists)!

Re Koho's reference to the uber-troll that appeard on the FC List in '99 - that person (who should remain nameless lest he Google himself and bring himself here) did the same and far worse in a number of different areas on the Net for years, including trying to align himself to Neonazis.  His house was raided last year and his computers seized but he just got more and kept going (phone and internet harrassment).  He appeared in court last week and will hopefully be imprisoned soon.   ;D

Having said all that - nice to be here.

Michael (Hunter)

Hi Michael,
pleased to meet you, welcome aboard, we're mostly harmless ;)
Just wanted to say that it's good to see that one of these internet menaces has been caught and something is being done about him........it restores your faith a bit.
Post lots and have fun here :) :)

Mic

Welcome Michael

The above Troll has attempted to join this board, a couple of times, but one of the advantages of this software, is that we can prevent people from getting access and people who sign on anonymously, can have their access limited.

Gosh Jobb, put some more water in the moat (on the ledge ;D) and oil the drawbridge.

I don't fancy being uber-trolled.

Puggs  ;D ;D

I personally prefer the email list format rather than Bulletin Board purely because I'm a lazy cow and if it lands in my mail box I'll probably read it... if I have to go looking it just doesn't happen - hence my lack of input since I signed up here. Oh, and I prefer the unmoderated approach (though I can understand those who don't).


You haven't met him then :-)

Jane

Hello,

I've read this conversation with interest and thought I'd join in.

To be honest, the only reason I have joined the bulletin board is because the FC list has now got very boring, although I am staying on that list too.

I've been on the list since 1996/7, and loved every minute of it, including the second FC list shirt (FC haven't heard of you). I can claim to have had the first list wedding, with listees attending, having said that, I think we also had the first list divorce  :(

I really hope that I build up here the sort of friendships that I still have from the FC list (even though a lot of those people are no longer on the FC list), but I think it will be more difficult, because you have to find the subjects you want to talk on.

So the list has got boring... why?  I actually do blame this bulletin board, I'm afraid. In the old days, we used to talk about FC, musicians around the FC group, fok in general, and had a lot of humour there.  Unfortunately, some people didn't like the off-topic conversations (even if they were fok music related), so we started a second list, called the Off-topic list.  The bulletin board grew out of that, and in so doing, I think deprived the FC list of the family feel I had grown to love.  Indeed, many people described the FC list as a virtual pub.  The Corporation Arms is the next step of that.

God, I sound very negative about this place.  That's not my intention, I'm here now, and I'm going to enjoy myself.

Hope I haven't offended anyone.

Donna

PS Oh, and I must admit I wasn't too keen on the idea of being moderated, although those of you who know me, know that I rarely cause offence, except by accident.

Hi Donna and welcome.  ;)

I am sure, in fact know you will meet lots of friends both old and new on here. The chat room is great to wander in and out of and that way you build up friendships and get to know people. I like the idea of finding different subjects to read and all with just a press of the unread topics button - it's so easy and the list appears in front of you  :)

I am pleased we are moderated because our motto "It's nice to be nice" gives a feeling of friendship. We do ramble and speak our minds at times but it's never offensive  [;-) There's enough of that in the world outside IMHO  [;-)

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Leahdon...

Well glad you made it here whatever the reasons

Speaking for myself I think that you will find that there is a bit of a 'family' feel to what goes on here too. Like all families there is the ocassional dust-up but things soon settle... and this is when the moderation sometimes proves to be valuable.  :-[  :D

Anyway.. looking forward to bumping into you from time to time...

Nuthouse

Hi Donna....'bout time you showed up  ;)

When will we have the first Talk Awhile wedding  [;-)

Gosh: I'd forgotten the List! Must have lost it with an old e-mail account at about the time of the T shirts...
I also managed to ditch religous tracts from my sister-in-law at the same time, and have been very reluctant to sign up to anything like it since! I get quite enough in my in box as it is, and there is so much here to browse that I don't get to make it into the Arms more than once in a blue moon, and never seem to get around to posting - all those messages still only going round in my head...

Greetings, Donna

One of the side benefits of the Board is that you learn all sorts of way-out stuff from members' Board names. E.g how many of us knew who Schrodinger's cat was before joining? Or that Leaf by Niggle is a book by Tolkien? Tarda is either Latin for late (humble self has A level Latin!!) or a variety of tulip or mushroom - if none of these, I am sure she will put us right.

Hope to see you at Cropredy.

Malcolm of Farnham

I was on the RT list 94-97.  By 1997, a day wasn't long enough to "Digest" the Digest, so it had to go.  THOUGHT about joining the FC list on several occasions (I know a few of you know me anyway) but was put off by the though of size.  At least with the board format you can take it all in at your own pace, and not have to worry about "keeping up" as much.

Neil

Enough of all this. It is not a competition.
Descussions about Fairport exist in both formats, the mailing list and as part of this board. Please feel free to use whichever you like.

Thank you - I do

Jackdaw

Otis tarda = the great bustard - extinct in the UK but subject of a reintroduction programme on the Salisbury plains. See my avatar(da)
Literal translation is "slow bird", which somehow seemed appropriate at the time! Maybe I should change to the tulip?  ;)

Gill (slow but steady!)