INC NEWS - website, listserver, help, and so on

[RW Pickle]

Bill Anderson is right. No one will ever explain why we changed our name
to me or anyone else. Even before it was voted on, no one offered a good
reason (or any) for the change. So getting one now would be a surprise.
Usually there is a good reason for any organization to do this. But there
doesn't seem to be one in this case. As I suggested in the last email, the
popular way to spell it can be found by doing a search for the different
ways it is spelled. The way it was before the vote last night wins that
contest by a long shot when searched on Google. Even if you look at how
folks find us on the web, the single words are used more than any combined
words. Here's just what I pulled off the server for most recent search
words used to find us ranked in order of number of times used:

   7: durham
   5: neighborhood
   3: council
   2: nc
   2: association
   2: morehead
   2: interneighborhood
   2: inter

There were 22 other words that had only one search attributed to them. Our
most popular word is durham (15%), followed by neighborhood (14%), then
council (8%), nc (7%) and so on. Interneighborhood tied with Morehead
which should make them proud (at 4% each). Hardly good spelling to find us
on the web it would seem. 40% of our visitors found us by other search
words other than those listed as being used twice.  This is just another
consideration that was never given any thought. And I'm sure there are
more. But as Bill said, give it up, it's a done deal. That's why
discussion on this list is so important. Had all the facts been on the
table, it would be hard to believe that something like this could have
ever happened. It's easy to change something when you really don't know
what all the factors are and you think it doesn't matter. When the fallout
begins to emerge, is it too late to change it back? I doubt it. There's
nothing to prohibit changing it back and forth at every meeting should the
membership decide to do so. It's just another vote (when there's enough
people there to do so).

Bill Anderson wrote:

"For two years, you have complained about what a burden dealing with the
website and listserv have been"

He's right, but he has been the only one hearing about this burden because
I was fussing at him for causing it. He is one of the biggest human factor
problems I have had. Fix this, fix that, change this, why won't this work,
and the list goes on. But that's fine. I don't mind educating him and to
some degree, it has worked. I doubt anyone else has ever heard me complain
about anything relating to the online stuff except for the human factors
(and maybe the spam when it comes at me at 2,000+ a day for a few days;
that gets old in a hurry). I regularly ask for and add content. That
hardly sounds like someone who is complaining. But I did complain just
this week about changing the spelling of INC across the 350+ web files.
Who wouldn't. It's a sensless change that just wastes time. It would be
great if I could dump it all in a program and do a universal change. But
there are several different file formats so that just wouldn't work.

He also said:

"while rejecting all offers to let someone else take over the tasks."

This entire statement is just false. Bill is just making this up as he
often does to further a point he is trying to make. And as I regularly do,
I don't mind calling him on it. No one else (who is qualified and that I
am aware of) has come forth with any offers to do anything as it relates
to our online resources. No one. Recently I did have an offer to help, but
our Secretary, Pat, decided it was just over her head. Other than Pat, no
one has ever come forth and said they'd do anything to help. Perhaps Bill
will furnish us the names of all these folks who offered to help so I can
contact them again (since he believes they offered help before). It
shouldn't take much time to create a list of them since there won't be a
name on it.

But let me extend an offer to anyone in our reading audience. If you'd
like to take over a piece or all of our online service, please send me a
note telling me what you know, what you can do, and some examples of stuff
you've done. I'll be happy to recommend to the Board that we let you take
it over. Workload varries with requests. Currently there is a backlog of
work to be done and this doesn't take into consideration the senseless
name change that needs to happen throughout the website.

Despite what some would want you to believe, I'd be happy to turn the
entire online operation over to someone qualified who wouldn't mind doing
what it takes to keep it all up and running. Unlike those who utilize
blogs for information on the web, the entire website of INC is just that,
a website. It has no fancy online tools to help you do anything. You'll
need to be able to do it all. Ken thinks it needs this, someone else
thinks it needs that. It'll always be that way because not everyone likes
the same flavors. You have the vanilla crowd, the strawberry crowd, and
the chocolate crowd. Some want nuts, some are allergic to them. Then there
are different dips and cups or cones. maybe some just like shakes. It's
hard to get all of the flavors and options on the same website, so someone
will always be wanting something else or different. I'd have to say, that
in the time I have been doing it, there have been very few complaints
about anything that has or has not been done (except for Bill; and he will
be the first person to tell you he doesn't know anything about how it is
supposed to work, just that it should work this way or look like that).

It is an informational and resource website for INC and it works well at
serving that audience. If there are navigation issues as Ken suggests,
this is the first time I have heard about them and am willing to look and
see if it can't be tightened up. But it may just be Ken. Not everyone has
the same experience on every website. We all have learned to navigate the
web differently and those differences become apparent when you study how
people interface with the web. It differs almost from person to person
when just surfing. If seeking particular bits of information, getting to
that information quickly is important. I suppose I could add a search
engine to the site so anyone looking for something specific could find it
faster. But as I have said, this has never been an issue. I would say that
it's a personal preference rather than an issue if it's just for one
person who feels this way. Even if it were 10 people, that's still such a
small number when you consider the number of website viewers. And as I
said, there has been very little feedback that would require any changes
at this point.

As far as a committe to do something with the online stuff, I think we're
all probably committee'd to death already. i have always been open to
suggestions and have made the changes without much hesitation if it seemed
to make it more useful or functional. Some changes, like I said above,
seem to be personal preferences and I tend to consider the source when I
get those. Usefulness, informative, and functional seem to have a higher
priorities. I learned a long time ago that no matter what you do, you will
not please everyone. And a website or list server is no different. There
will always be someone who doesn't like something and you just can't cater
to one person (or even a few). Members of INC should probably find most of
the information on the website as already known. The website is for the
rest of the world to look into our window. It's a resource of information
and archival history of what we want others to see INC as being and how we
might help. Anything that is considered  timely will probably be found
here on the list server.

This is the last bit of space I will waste dealing with these subjects.
There are just bigger fish to fry...

RWP
27 Beverly