Hi

I just want to backup Edward's comments.

I'm happy to discuss just about anything openly, though it is useful to 
have product specific lists, and yes at times useful to know that 
certain vendors or third party salesmen are not going to contact you as 
a result of posting.

Aquabrowser has many good points, but has lacked any sort of community, 
add to this the very limited documentation - which could lead to 
confusion as to what is a feature and what is a bespoke addition that 
another site has commissioned/developed. I even tried asking on the 
Aquabrowser Facebook fan page discussion board - its only post!
This mailing list is a very welcome addition.

Chris

On 22/10/2009 15:45, Edward M. Corrado wrote:
> I don't see this as an interesting difference at all. Almost all
> [larger] vendor-supplied products in the library world have their own
> discussion lists that are limited to people that use/license their
> products. We even see this with Open Source products such as Koha.
> Although I do not use AquaBrowser, unlike almost all other library
> specific-software of this magnitude I understand that AquaBrowser does
> not have a user group (formal or informal). There currently is very few
> ways (no way?) for users of this product to converse with each other and
> share ideas.
>
> There are numerous reasons for wanting to share information on a closed
> list that can range from not wanting to spam a larger community with a
> "how do activate a widget in product A" to asking questions/sharing
> information that for whatever reason you don't want to or can't share
> with the whole world (e.g. non-disclosure agreements, public relations
> concerns, privacy concerns, not wanting your name in open archives
> attached to something, etc.). In fact, in some cases you may not even
> want the vendor on the list the way some Voyager systems administrators
> created a list that excluded Endeavor (and now Ex Libris) and
> non-systems people at Voyager sites. This made people feel much more
> comfortable asking questions that maybe they would otherwise be
> embarrassed or reluctant to ask.
>[snip]


-- 
Chris Keene                                     [log in to unmask]
Technical Development Manager                   Tel (01273) 877950
University of Sussex Library
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/