Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mosaic and Gather

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

Many people have raised the issue of not wanting to bother Sean. It was part of 
my hesitation for many years. Having to ask one person to do everything makes 
me feel like a pest. Even though he has always been more than welcoming when I 
have asked questions and is currently working with me so I can understand the 
software. I also like to know how things work — I trust them more that way. And 
after several failed attempts at a variety of programs and services that seemed 
perfect but in the end lost our data or made it laborious to transfer, I’m 
cautious. 

I’m also more trusting of information from users (Sorry, Tom and Sean) because 
they have to actually make the thing work and teach others. From the day in 
1999 when I was asked to set up the YahooGroups for teams and then the website, 
I’ve been explaining things. And searching for better solutions. Best would be 
solution that can be developed over time to do all the things the actual users 
need/want/understand. 

Since both Sean and Tom live in cohousing they understand but they are also 
developers. Sometimes things seem very clear to developers and totally obscure 
to users. It’s not only a different language, it’s a whole way of coding the 
world.

After checking out various forums and lists and things, I decided to try an 
email discussion list on Groups.io. There is no learning curve, it’s free, and 
people have a lot of options for message delivery. And it is neutral, meaning 
people using Mosaic, Gather, Google clusters, etc. can join and follow the 
discussion of options and how they work.

I’m waiting for it to be approved and will send subscribing information when it 
is — probably tomorrow. 

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org