Re: A few more questions for candidates...

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:28:47 +0100, Mother <"@ {mother} @"@101fc.net>
wrote:

>1. In general terms, the Internet has only really gained popularity
>within the last 10 years, to become a 'normal' part of everyday life
>for many people. How would you like to see the Internet develop over
>the next 10 years and where do you see usenet within this vision?

I would really like to see more being used of the available bandwidth
than just graphics on websites. VOIP is a good example of this, but
also television or on demmand programmes over the net would be nice.
I am really not interested in flashy websites as I can't really see
them.

I have mixed feelings about Usenet - I don't believe it will survive
in its current state - mainly due to people using it as a file
transfer mechanism - which it was never designed to support. I would
like to see more services like Gmane (www.gmane.org) come into life,
and perhaps something which would get RSS feeds and put them into a
Usenet feed would be good (as I could access all content in one
interface, though don't really know how useful this would be for
others). I like what Google are trying to do, but don't like the
interface at all, and I believe this doesn't really do much for the
usenet comunity.
>
>2. Do you believe conflict to be a natural part of diverse and
>productive discussion? And how would you rate your ability to manage
>conflict?

I believe that whenever you get more than one person in any situation
you will get conflict, and that conflict is not a bad thing. I
believe that everyone can make a valid point, no matter what they have
done in the past, and for this reason do not use any killfiles.
>
>3. Have you ever found that your view or opinion has changed on any
>given subject or issue after having read through a thread, and been
>presented with differing arguments, providing contrary views to what
>you initially believed?

Yes. However mainly on technical mailing lists/groups, where the
discussion is on the best way to implement specific configurations,
and the best way of doing so.
>
>4. If (or for three of you, when) elected to the Committee, what are
>your expectations of workload, decision-making and responsibility in
>terms of managing the uk. hierarchy? What personal benefits would
>you, in return, expect to receive from 'being on the Committee'?

I don't really know how active or otherwise the committee list is, or
to what extent my skills (if any) would be required.
>
>5.. Is it reasonable to expect the Committee to be seen as 'The
>Management', with a policing role within our hierarchy?

To a certain extent yes - though I don't really think of the committee
like this - in the really important decisions the vote is the main
influence.
>
>6. Has usenet been devalued by "chummy chit-chat", or has it been
>enriched?

I am all in favour of chat in groups, but do find it slightly annoying
where a thread drifts off into chat on occasions, and if I skip that
part of the thread I may miss something important that I wanted to
read. I wouldn't say that it had devaluded usenet, though.
>
>7. Is it more important to be a "weather***" - changing your views
>and opinions over time, or to be a "signpost", always indicating the
>same direction?

I don't like either analogy. However, I don't like it sometimes when
people will continue to do one thing ignoring other circumstances. A
good example of this is top posting. I don't like top posting much in
newsgroups, but over recent years I have stuck to posting correctly in
many blindness related mailing lists. However, more recently I have
taken to top posting in these lists after someone explained the issues
- i.e, the way that the software reads with certain popular Microsoft
products, which means that bottom posting is _extreemly_ difficult to
read, and that actually mostly my contributions were going unnoticed
because people just didn't have the energy to go through my messages.
>
>8. How important is a sense of humour?

If it wasn't for the odd reliefs which we get occasionally, I wouldn't
be here now.
>
>9. If you had to express a preference, would you opt for Plain
>Chocolate Digestives, or Plain Chocolate Hobnobs?

Could I just go for the mars bar?

Thanks.
Andrew.
--
Andrew Hodgson in Bromyard, Herefordshire, UK.
My Email: use <andrew at hodgsonfamily dot org>.
.