I wrote a note to the bottom of a Internet OTR Digest post earlier today dealing with using computers to record audio and burn audio CDs. Before I go any farther, so no one gets the wrong impression, I’m not picking on that post - I added it because over the past few months this has come up a few times, and I wanted to bring it out into the open instead of handling it behind-the-scenes. I mean, after all, what’s the point of having a blog if I can’t use it to get direct feedback about the operation and subject material appropriate to the Digest?

Anyway, to continue what I wrote there, I’d really prefer not to get the Digest bogged down in instructions on how to use computer audio processing software, burning software, etc. It isn’t that I personally have no interest in this area…heck, I probably spend more time every day in audio software packages (Audacity, lame from the command line, TotalRecorder, streamripper, Nero, etc., etc.) than most subscribers to the Digest. It’s because most subscribers don’t, and the Digest really isn’t set up to act as a computer software support list - there are many many places on the Internet which discuss this topic in excruciating detail (check Google, Yahoo, or your other favorite search engine for the specific software package or task of interest), so the Digest can better focus on Old-Time Radio, an interest all subscribers share. Brief discussions on or recommendations of audio players/recorders seem to me to be ok, but crossing into computer software support just seems the wrong direction.

Of course, it’s always possible I’m misreading the needs of the subscriber base. I try to keep the Digest more narrowly-focused than a lot of discussion lists or forums on the Internet, but that’s because I’ve been living on the Internet for a really long time, and have seen many fine lists self-destruct by fragmentation and loss of focus. At the same time, all of the decisions I make are constantly guided by, “What is best for the reader of the OTR Digest?” Everything, from the over-quoting filter to the removal of free-email system advertisement footers is designed with the reader in mind…my never-achievable goal is for the Digest to be exactly what the subscriber expects when she or he subscribes, and to be the most accessable discussion list ever published, bar none. But that also requires me to make assumptions about what the subscriber expects, and to focus the discussion that direction.

Now I’m the least-perfect person you’re going to find, so mistakes are not an uncommon occurance. In our house, we have a mantra when it comes to errors - Admit Them, Fix Them, and Move On. So I invite public comments on this specific issue - am I calling it right, or do you think the Digest should include discussions of computer software? Those interested can discuss it publicly here without interrupting the flow of the Digest.

Of course, private comments pro/con/ambivalent on this or any other Digest content issue are, as always, welcomed and encouraged, too, sent to me directly - contact address and other links are published in the footer of every issue of the Digest so you’ll always have them handy, and you can always use that “Contact the Webmaster” button on the sidebar here to get to me personally and privately, too.

(Oh, and while you’re here, scroll down a bit on the front page. While I was in the neighborhood I posted another episode from Nick Harris, Detective. I know I’ve been a little busy lately, but I’m trying to keep the podcast running fresh material and hope to have the latest from the “Haendiges Collection” up sometime this weekend. I also need to finish the MANC video tapes before Martin drives up Route 74 and beats me with a Betamax tape, and compete the major renovation to the OldRadio.Net Shop - let me know if you like or hate the changes. On top of the radical new design to make the Shop cleaner and easier-to-use, there were a boatload of under-the-hood changes for less goofy URLs, more information presented faster, and a cleanup of the database system. And I need to add some new discs I’ve put together, but I don’t want to do that until all the programming work is finished. Nothing like another look at mortality to get a guy off his rear, eh?)