From: blockedofcourse@foo.invalid
On 12/16/2025 11:40 PM, Daniel wrote:
> Don Y writes:
>
>> On 12/15/2025 11:45 PM, Daniel wrote:
>>> Don Y writes:
>>>
>>>> On 12/11/2025 2:34 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
>>>>> On 11/12/2025 07:18, Daniel wrote:
>>>>>> I am in the process of learning electronics for homebrew
>>>>>> applications. While this NG will likely serve as a learning aid, I was
>>>>>> hoping some of you would know of a good listserv I can join as a
>>>>>> supplement to this NG. So far I've been okay on my own.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm not a member of any social networks. At this point, only looking for
>>>>>> listserv membership.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Otherwise, I've been lurking on Libera IRC in ##electronics channel.
>>>>> Listserv are mostly defunct now. There are various forums and also
>>>>> the electronic engineering and signal processing parts of Stack
>>>>> Exchange.
>>>>
>>>> Software products (esp FOSS) still rely heavily on mailing lists.
>>>> It's much nicer having information COME to you than having to PULL it.
>>>> And, you don't have to dick with silly "forum software" that doesn't
>>>> know how to thread, adores HTML, etc.
>>>>
>>>> It's also a lot more private (or, can be) and disciplined. There's
>>>> additional "responsibility" that comes with knowing your comments
>>>> are being *distributed* to a particular group of people (instead
>>>> of "being made available")
>>> Yeah, some people like to make authoritative statements about things
>>> as
>>> if they know. Perhaps they think the rest of us are too dumb to know
>>> better.
>>
>> To be fair, most of "traditional internet chat" has moved away from
>> USENET, IRC and mailing lists in favor of forums. Aside from the graphical
>> user interface that it presents, I don't see much value to that move;
>> you lose threading, have to GO to the conversation (instead of having
>> it delivered to your inbox), have less control over who sees the
>> content, etc.
>
> Yeah, the thing for me lies in the fact that even popular forums don't
> usually draw many responses to questions. So, to me, even when a newsgroup
> has a handful of knowledgeable people reading and responding, what
> difference does it make? The engagement is there.
>
> I have memberships across dozens of forums specializing in a wide array
> of interests. The evolution of everything else has led to an
> optimization of the usenet and listserv communiies, in my opinion. IRC
> and the BBS world counts. We are even seeing a resurgance of finger and
> people finding interesting ways to serve information using that simple
> protocol. Good times.
>
> On usenet alone, I subscribe to dozens of active NG's. And even the
> inactive get responses. People simply don't post daily. Other
> NG's have simply died due to the discontinuity of google groups.
Mailing lists are best when there is a very narrow focus to the
subject being addressed. E.g., *development* (as different from
"support") for various software products; everyone on the list is
likely a developer or someone with an intimate desire to better understand
the product.
More "general" subjects tend to wander too much to keep people
engaged. Though you may find a subject tickles a lurker and
you get a response, there.
>>> I found a listserv after more research. After an inital post and
>>> receiving the response, I was auto-removed a few days later due to
>>> bounce backs. I checked for archives and there were none. The list was
>>> created but either misconfigured or never maintained.
>>
>> In the past, I've found lists that *appeared* to exist but likely
>> never materialized. In at least one instance, my "subscription"
>> (using an email address never distributed elsewhere) led to an
>> onslaught of spam.
>>
>> [Having lots of email addresses -- and guarding any PRECIOUS ones -- means
>> it is easy to discard one that is exploited by a spammer]
>>
>>> I'm sure a list exists and unadvertised. You nailed it though.
>
> I have memberships of very active listservs across a variety of
> interests and they all involve tech.
>
> There's an old listserv for gopher that I forgot about until someone
> rattled the cages and got the conversation going again.
You're more likely to find more activity in something more current.
People with "legacy" interests tend to be fewer in number as those
legacy items tend to see diminishing audiences.
E.g., I can probably find a list that will have people knowledgeable about
my Sun Voyager. Or, arcane details of a Chimera. These folks typically
don't EXPECT much chatter as the folks interested are few in number
(and, most often, decreasing).
But, those who "hang around" likely have invested considerable time and
effort into those things and, as such, are the closest things to "experts"
in those domains. And, they expect to be dealing with "zealots", not
"pedestrians".
As far as "electronics" (in general), I suspect you will find a hard
time getting to a happy medium -- where you aren't surrounded by
utter newbies (and folks who are impatient with them) or "experts"
who often don't have the patience to address "basic" questions but
would, rather, point you off in some other direction for that
"foundation".
I suspect a good compromise might be to actually *try* building things
and pose questions about your efforts: why doesn't this work as I
THINK it should? *How* does it work? What else might I try from
here?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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