Under "Naomi Klein and the Quaker brand" Licia Kuenning and Bill Samuel suggested I clarify the process by which people find out about activity on this forum.

When the forum was more active, I sent out bulletins of my own to those who asked me to keep them informed. I did eight or nine of these, but none in the last half-year.

The other main device that the forum includes for updates is the link to the "Change Detection" service at the upper right of the Network 54 index page for the forum. [NOTE: I have turned off this service, as it seems to notify everyone even if a banner ad or other trivial feature has changed.] Anyone who has [HAD] signed up with this service gets an automated e-mail from Change Detection whenever this service detects that the index page has changed, owing either to a new message in the forum, or to a change I might have made to the index page. (This posting will itself cause another Change Detection e-mail to go out.) I don't know who signed up for those notices, so I can't do anything about them, but they do contain how-to-unsubscribe information.

More generally, I do intend to keep this forum intact, regardless of the level of new participation, because it is in effect the product of my Ferguson Fellowship year at Woodbrooke, and this format is an easy way for me to refer people to it. Some of the topics have the potential for much additional thought (Licia's comments on salaried evangelists - in the "Crisis Evangelism" topic - are a great example) but it is possible that this format is not the ideal mode of ongoing conversation.

(Is there an ideal mode? I still believe Friends are shockingly lethargic when it comes to the importance of evangelism, but I can't claim to have found the ideal way to facilitate a more energetic approach!)

I don't intend to do a lot more promotion of this forum. The most effective promotion has been done by other people, not by me. I mentioned this forum in the October Quaker Life but can't see that this resulted in even one new topic or comment. In summary, if a new wave of interest comes along, fine; if another mode or venue for this important concern arises, very fine; and if all I do is keep this present body of material accessible, perhaps that is okay, too.

- Johan

PS: Eventually the contents of this forum, whether it is active or not, will probably migrate to a blog-style format on another site. This one is too expensive.

No login should be needed to access this forum or post messages. Please let me know if you're blocked and I'll contact tech support.

Johan Maurer writes,

"Eventually the contents of this forum, whether it is active or not, will probably migrate to a blog-style format on another site. This one is too expensive."

I personally find web-based forums extremely cumbersome to use, and this one is also confusing (it took numerous attempts just to get logged in to send this note). No doubt someone with more internet experience than I have might have managed the whole thing more efficiently, but I doubt I am the only one who has difficulties in this area.

Why not just go to http://www.yahoogroups.com, click on "Start your own group" (or "Start a group," or whatever set of words conveys that idea, which I know is right on the home page) and follow the instructions. They are simple enough that I have managed to start a couple of Yahoo groups, and there are so many such groups that I think a very minimal level of skill must be sufficient.

Yahoo lists are not as elegant looking as Johan's website, but they are completely free and so widely used that probably most people who use the Internet at all are familiar with their general setup. Messages can be both sent and received by e-mail, or they can be done from the web, whichever the user prefers. Past messages are stored in the archives which are easy to access. The list owner (i.e., the person who starts it) has the choice of whether to screen applicants, whether to moderate posts, etc.

Licia
Friends of Truth

http://www.voicenet.com/~kuenning
http://www.qhpress.org
http://www.megalink.net/~klee

kuenning-licia@voicenet.com
licia@qhpress.org

I have twice received e-mails saying a change has been detected in this forum. When I have gone to the website, I find that nothing has changed--at least there don't seem to be any new messages; though I note that this morning Johan's introductory box about what is "new" has yesterday's date at the bottom.

Are these "change" e-mails just random "false positives"? or am I doing something wrong? or what's going on?

Licia Kuenning
Friends of Truth/Glenside Friends Meeting/Quaker Heritage Press

WATCH FARMINGTON!

This change notice is sent out even when trivial changes occur, including changes to the front page, whether or not something new has been posted.

I have very little time right now to do a full transfer of this site to another location, but that's what will happen sooner or later. I'd like a location that lets people in without registering, and doesn't present them with offensive banner ads. The easiest may be for me simply to place it on my own site for now, adding posts manually. In any case, I'll keep using the URL mentioned on the front page.

Hello again--Johan--who may be the only other person reading this website--I am here only because I received another "Change Detection" notice--regarding this forum, I assume--since the language it uses is greek to me, but I have never been on another forum that uses Network54.

Oddly--I never received a "Change Detection" notice for my own last post, nor for your reply dated April 15. It is now April 20, and there is nothing new on the site so far as I can see--though who knows what strange impulses motivate the machine?

WHY are you trying to use an unworkable system when there is an easy way to set up a mailing list on Yahoo? Are you prejudiced against Yahoo? (I don't like it much myself, but nearly everybody uses it--and why not?)

When you first started this forum I didn't have web access, and I asked you why not use a system that can be posted to and read by e-mail. I forget how you replied, but you sounded as if you thought the situation regrettable but necessary. Is the problem that you think some organization has to sponsor your forum? Believe me--nobody has to sponsor an Internet forum--any idiot can start their own list--and you are not an idiot!

Tell whoever you work with that Network54 is not a good system, and START YOUR OWN LIST. If you don't know how to use yahoogroups, and you can't figure it out just by going to yahoogroups.com and clicking on "Start a Group" and following fairly simple directions--let me know, and I'll start it for you.

That's if you really want a forum on evangelism. It wasn't my idea to begin with--and I can live without it--but it irritates me to subscribe to a forum and then find that the owner can't or won't fix the bugs in it--and nobody posts to it anyway.

I don't know whether the interest has simply died out--in which case maybe you should forget the whole idea--or whether people gave up on this forum for the same reason that I might think of doing so--because it is too cumbersome for practical use--but there is a yahoogroup called Quaker Outreach Forum--which I can't use because the moderator is heavily biased toward Liberal Quakerism and won't take me off moderated status. He takes offense at the slightest hint of theology!

So it would be sort of nice if there were a forum discussing outreach from a Christ-centered perspective, and you would be a pretty good person to run such a group, if you would just do it. Try starting a yahoogroup.

(Now this web program will mis-format my message, if past experience is any guide--but I haven't time to figure out how to get it to do it right, and I suppose it will be legible.)

Licia Kuenning
Friends of Truth/Glenside Friends Meeting/Quaker Heritage Press

http://www.qhpress.org
http://www.megalink.net/~klee
kuenning-licia@voicenet.com

WATCH FARMINGTON!