On Mon, 4 Jan 1999 08:54:08 EST, you Acquaria@aol.com inquired
of me, in email, regarding a posting I’d made referencing a post
in rec.crafts.jewelry, the newsgroup I moderate…
Am I reading this correctly that this is in reference to a different list? If so, could you please share the list with me? And any other related lists that you might be aware of?
Orchid is a mail list, where messages sent by readers go to a
single site, and are then remailed by that site to a subscription
list. This is in essence an extension of the email function of
the internet. There are several other mail lists in operation,
but Orchid is probably the most active, as well as the most
pertenant to your interests. The other lists I’m aware of are
more academic in nature, one being run by the graduate students
at Tyler School of Art in philadelphia, which stays active partly
because they are required to post to it during academic
semesters. Much of the talk is either esoterica relating to
aesthetics, art education etc, or is related to their primary
interest in jewelry design technology, computer generated work,
ie, CAD/CAM. It can be a little confusing if you’re not into the
formal art education scene, but if you are, the discussions can
sometimes be fascinating, and the students welcome outside
viewpoints on their musings. You can get details on what they
are doing by going to their web site, at
http://blue.temple.edu/~crafts/mjcc/mjcc.html. A link on that
page references the ACMET-L list serve too, for more info. To
subscribe, Send an email to LISTSERV@VM.TEMPLE.EDU . In the
BODY of the message (no subject is needed), type “Subscribe
ACMET-L ”, without the quotes, where is
just that, rather than your email address or something. You’ll
get a confirmation reply with more info… Note that at the
moment, the list is pretty quiet between semesters…
There is also a lapidary mail list run by Hale Sweeny, concerned
only with gem cutting (lapidary) topics OTHER than facetting
stones. To subscribe to the Lapidary Digest, send a message to
Lapidary@mindspring.com, with the word SUBSCRIBE DIGEST as the
SUBJECT of the message. Other commands you may use aRe: HELP to
receive a page of help instructions on the use of the list, and
DIR to receive a list of names of all files in the Archives.
For Facceting stones, theres the faceters digest run by Jerry
Dewbre The list address is faceters@ix.netcom.com , though I
don’t recall the exact sytax for subscription requests. No
matter, though, he’s also got a web site for the list, at
http://www.netcom.com/~nndewbre , and subscription info is
available there.
Then, there is ROCKS-AND-FOSSILS mail list. If you are into
mineral and fossil collecting, subscribe by addressing an e-mail
message to rocks-and-fossils-request@world.std.com, with the
single word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Another mail list enjoyed by mineral collectors is the
ROCKHOUNDS mail list. Subscribe by sending a message to
rockhounds-request@infodyn.com with the single word SUBSCRIBE
in the body of the message.
Coming back to metalwork, we then have the Artmetal project. It’s
a very active forum for smiths (predominantly blacksmiths, but
like most mailing lists, they welcome any interested party to
join in). As they say themselves: “The ArtMetal Project is a
not-for-profit volunteer venture of a group of metalsmiths and
organizations which aims to disseminate about various
aspects of artistic metalworking and to provide a forum for
artists and art lovers to experience this outstanding medium.” To
subscribe to the ArtMetal list, send an email message to
listproc@mail.wustl.edu. (no subject is neccessary) Include the
following line in the body of the message: subscribe ARTMETAL
Your Name Here
There are more lists, but those will get you started.
Now then. Back to your original question, regarding the forum I
was talking about. (wondered when I’d get there, didn’t you?) As
I said, mail lists are extensionf of the email function of the
internet, with a single originating site or person. You can run
a list from your own home computer if you like.
another function is what’s called newsgroups, or by some
programs, discussion groups. AOL has some of these running just
for it’s own users, but the wider internet has the real thing.
What distinguishes newsgroups from email is that they exist in
seperate copies on the news servers of each and every ISP. When
you send a message to a newsgroup, it gets sent all over the
net, and is stored on the news server of all ISPs for their
subscribers, so the newsgroups are not normally dependent on any
single site or person. You read and post to these things via a
newsreader interface. There’s one built into the AOL software,
in the internet connection area, or in Netscape, it’s called
“collabra discussion groups”, or in internet explorer, something
else which I don’t recall… and there are many other third
party newsreaders you can use as well. The last time I updated
the list of newsgroups available on the netcom servers, there
was something just short of 25 thousand newsgroups. Most are of
no interest to me, of course, but there is something there for
anyone. Several of the groups are of specific interest to
jewelers or artists. One is called rec.crafts.jewelry, and this
one differs from the others in that it is one of a fairly small
number of these newsgroups that is actually regulated, or as it’s
called, moderated. I’m the moderator. What this means is that
messages sent to the group by anyone come first to me for
approval, and THEN get sent to the group as a whole, being only
copied to the worlds news servers after I make sure it belongs
in the group, and is not some off topic ad or spam. (a problem
non moderated groups suffer from). You access rec.crafts.jewelry
or other newsgroups just by telling your own software to access
that group. It’s called subscribing, but unlike a mail list, you
do not actually send any subscription messages. you’ve already
got access to the group, and only have to tell your software to
show it to you. In addition to rec.crafts.jewelry, some of the
other newsgroups in this type of forum are:
Rec.crafts.metalworking (very active) rec.crafts.glass
rec.crafts.beads rec.crafts.marketplace rec.crafts.polymer-clay
rec.crafts.pottery alt.beadworld alt.folklore.gemstones
alt.crafts.blacksmithing alt.crafts.professional alt.diamonds
alt.diamonds.marketplace pdaxs.ads.jewelry
And there are, I’m sure, others I’ve missed. Some of these will
be more active and useful than others. And then, of course,
there is the web. There are literally thousands of web sites
devoted in some manner to jewelry, selling, making, showing,
explaining, etc. For that, there are search engines, as well as
links you find on good sites like Orchids home base,
Ganoksin.com…
Hope this helps.