Conference quark::human_relations-v1

>    Several years ago I opened my Notebook and started adding conferences,

 I started at DEC last year, and within the first couple of weeks, this horrible
person sentenced me to notes. :-) My first conference was FISHING. It was there
that I adopted my moniker (cuz many people there had them). Eventually, a
heated discussion took place and I heard the immortal words "take it to
SOAPBOX" for the first time. Eventually I found SOAPBOX, and was very surprised
at the differences I found. As time went on, I found womannotes (and was 
promptly torched for upsetting the apple-cart), and mennotes (not terribly
active). Now I have found H_R.

 One of the things that I like about H_R is that there is a good mix of people
here. The topics discussed here are often topics which I've never felt
particularly well versed in, yet I find that I learn pretty quickly here.
I really appreciate the candor and humility I find here. I like the flavor
here.

>    And sometimes I wonder why I do this...and what is the value.  Is
>    noting another form of lip service that allows us to vent anger,
>    disappointment and rage?  

 There is a certain amount of energy that you can get from the net. I know
I can get a surge when I see someone connect to my workstation to send me
some mail. I also enjoy seeing people expressing something positive about my
notes. I take negative remarks about my notes into consideration as well-
I have seen my views on things evolve.

 I think that notes is a wonderful learning experience. The many different
personalities that you are exposed to enrich your worldview, from my
perspective. I have made some very valued friendships over the net- some of
which began on rather rocky terms. One of my closest confidants is someone
who initially flamed me to a crisp- yes, you know who you are! One of the
wonders (to me) is that you can become friends with someone with whom you had
a violent disagreement(s).

>    It seems that even the nicest thoughts or expressions of our humanity
>    become either trivialized or degenerate into cynical arguments. 

 I have noticed a trend lately in all the conferences in which I participate.
And that trend is described well, here, by Joyce. It seems that many people
are taking out their stress on the net. This is good and bad- it releases 
their stress, but also causes more for someone else.

 There are a number of discussions which have good beginnings, yet gradually
(sometimes precipitously) degenerate into shouting matches and ideological
warfare. And I am as guilty as anyone of escalating this when it starts.
One of the drawbacks of notes is that many people become acutely aware of a 
need to save face. I even notice it in myself. Many times violent notes
arguments are quickly and quietly resolved via MAIL. It seems it is easier to
back down and be the first to call for a truce in front of one person than
in front of a number of people.

 There are many more good aspects of notes than there are not so good aspects.
The interpersonal communication has been a boon to me. I have established
strong friendships with many people who I never would have even met if it
weren't for the net. So even if it sems that notes has been on a downswing 
lately, I have confidence that things will pick up. Stick with it, Joyce. ;^)

 The Doctah

    
    	When I first started as an outside temp almost 3 years ago,
    	my boss showed me three things.  How to read mail, how to 
    	call up his electronic calendar, and how to read notes.
    
    	I had a friend who also temped and was upstairs from me.  We
    	sat at my desk one day at lunch and added a bunch of files
    	to my Notes directory.  One of the first being FRIENDS I believe.
    	This file and a handful of others.  I found a place where I could
    	speak my mind and not worry about what would happen afterwards.
    	No one here knew me!!  Then I found that I *wanted* to hear replies
    	and what people thought of what I had to say.  And I found some
    	very wonderful, caring people.  People who were interested in 
    	what someone, who they had never heard of or met before, had to
    	say.  And cared about me.  Brought me up when I was down, gave
    	me advice when I needed it, or were just there to listen to me
    	babble.  (and Lord knows I do a lot of that!!  =)  )  Then, like
    	Joyce said, I started to go to Noters' parties.  And was able to
    	finally put faces to the names of the people who were interested
    	in me and who I was.  I have made some wonderful friends from
    	Notes and will treasure them always.
    
    	I haven't found another forum anywhere where there is such a 
    	broad spectrum of people.  I'm right at home here in Notes.
    
    	JJ
    
    	

    Noting is a new medium which interests me even more than E-mail and Usenet
    bulletin boards.  The combination of immediacy and permanence, of
    informality and public record, makes it unique.  It's a little like letter
    writing, a little like telephoning, a little like magazine publishing, even
    a little like group improvisation, but it doesn't fit any of these models
    completely.
    
    Like other media, it is open to abuse.  Since it is still developing, we
    have little in the way of defence against its abuse, which could be one
    reason for burn-out being so common.  I am convinced that its most
    interesting developments lie ahead.  This conviction is what brings me back
    to noting after my periodic burn-outs. 
    
    Ray

    After noting for three years I just want to say how wonderful it
    is meeting all these amazing people across the other side of the
    world via a terminal.
    
    Without notes, I wouldn't be on my way to meet everybody in 186
    days at my first party, nor do I think I'd have shedded all the sh*t
    as quickly from my life without all the help from this and other
    notes.
    
    I've been in a file where the fan has been on full blast, but, being
    me, it hasn't phased me in the least, I just sit back and regroup
    the troops.
    
    Thanks to all,
    
    ..dale
      
    

    
    I'm with you Joyce. My school major is in communications and when I
    finally get around to senior thesis time I've already decided that
    notes is my topic.

    Notes is the resurgence of letter writing, only it has the extra
    punch of immediacy. In my various studies I've read about the movers
    and shakers of past generations and it seemed they kept active
    corespondence with their distant friends as well as spending nights
    in the pub discussing their views of the world. Our version of this
    is notes. Maybe we aren't the Impressionist painters or the new
    existentialists but we are a community exchanging ideas and views
    that shape the way we face the world.

    We are the technocrats of the information society learning to live
    with an abundance of information comming at a speed that would have
    astounded past generations. When we argue the issues we form and
    even sometimes change our opinions through active debate. Yes, it
    sometimes gets out of hand, but in the old days these arguments
    would end in a duel, we just huff off and leave notes for a few
    days. liesl

        I've been with DEC for just over three years, and I started noting
    within the first month of my employment here.  I think that FRIENDS
    was my first conference, but I'm not positive about that.  I really
    enjoyed being able to share things with people from around the globe.
    FRIENDS was a great "place" for me to be.  There were people to talk to
    and listen to most of the time.

        Since I've only known DEC from a west coast point of view, noting
    and hearing from those of you back east gave me a better idea of what
    the company was like back east.  To me the company has a totally
    different feeling out here, and I longed for the closeness and
    togetherness that I sensed existed there.  I also felt left out when I
    heard of noters parties, lunches and dinners.  I wanted to meet the
    interesting people I was meeting in the conferences face to face.

        I helped organize a local conference, SILICON_VALLEY, in an effort
    to build a community of noters out here, but it just wasn't quite the
    same as what I was perceiving to exist back there.  SILICON_VALLEY is
    still around, but it certainly didn't blossom the way I expected it to.

        The one thing I've enjoyed doing most in all of the conference I've
    participated in is helping people.  I like finding and giving people
    information a lot.  I think that's one of the reasons I like being a
    moderator of SAN_FRANCISCO.  That conference is mainly a "get your
    questions answered here" conference.

        I think that highlight of my noting was when I suggested that we
    put together a photo album for FRIENDS and send it around the world so
    that we could all see each other.  It was a big thrill to finally get
    the album and "meet" the people I already knew.  I also found that if
    I'd seen someone's picture in the album it made their notes more "real"
    and I could almost imagine them saying the words in their notes.

        A lot of conferences have passed through my notebook.  Early on I
    really tried to write in the conference often and I kept up with as
    many as I could.  I now have moved into a mainly read-only situation in
    most of the conferences I keep in my notebook.  Gone are the days when
    I'd type in the upcoming events calendar from the AAA magazine for the
    San Francisco and northern California area.  Gone are the days when I'd
    try to add whatever I could to a conversation.

        I am very grateful for NOTES.  I met my closest friend in
    WHOAREYOU.  I still find it unusual that the person who knows the most
    about what I think and do these days is a person I've never seen
    before.

        Joyce mentioned the California quake we had a few weeks back. 
    During that time our building was shutdown for three and a half days,
    and I had no access to the net for 5 1/2 days.  I felt very isolated.
    I've realized that I think I've let Notes, and e-mail play too big a
    role in my life.  I have more close friends in distant places than I
    do here.  It's a sobering realization, but one that I feel I can learn
    from.

        I've learned a lot from notes and noting, and I've learned a lot
    about noting.  I've made changes and so have the various conferences
    I've been associated with.  I think that I'll continue to note until I
    leave DEC, whenever that may be.  But I don't think that I will ever
    return to the type of noting I did when I was at what I considered to
    be my peak noting.

    Tony

Like the author of .-1, I too started Noting very soon after joining DEC (about
2� years ago). I started out mostly read-only but gradually got more involved
and started contributing as well. In those days my main conferences were MOVIES
and TV, and for a while they were the only ones I followed.
Interest/participation in these came and went depending on workload, mood etc. 

I've found over time that my "flavour of the month" conferences change. I find
a new one, follow it avidly for a while, then either drop it or add it to the
small core of conferences I always follow. At the moment I most actively read
the FRIENDS, H_R, WM and MN conferences.

Whichever conferences I follow, they give me exposure to people, ideas, and 
opinions that I wouldn't otherwise encounter. Reading H_R, WN and MN have forced
me to re-evaluate many of my "set" ideas. 
  Also, as an foreigner ;^) Notes provide an insight into the culture, not just
of DEC, but the US in general. For the most part my views of the US have been
shaped by what I see in the Australian media: American movies and TV shows, and
whatever appears on the local news, which all too often is selected highlights
from US Network news services (sobering thought eh!). Being able to listen (and
occassionally talk) to you about the issues that I've seen reported second hand
here has been very enlightening.


For me though, Notes have a value beyond even this. More important is the sense
of "community" (for want of a better word) that they provide. Being
geographically remote, it's very easy to feel isolated, and I shudder to think
what it'd be like if my only contact with the rest of DEC was thought  work
related messages. Notes (and the friendships I've made through them) provide a
social link with the rest of DEC that builds a feeling of "belonging" stronger
than any other company I've worked for.

Hugh.

BTW, as a source of information during the recent earthquake, notes proved to be
far more immediate (and accurate) source of information than many of the news
reports. My parents were holidaying in the area at the time.

    re: .0
    
    On NOTING>
    
    Like Joyce, a couple of years ago I heard about a process called
    "notes". I'm not sure from whom or when, but i heard about it. However,
    in those days one didn't simply type "notes". One needed a notes-11
    software installed, and then, similiar to mail, needed a NET MAP, and
    then had to type in those strings of "access paths" to get to a
    particular node. Of course, we didn't have 50,000 plus nodes then,
    either. 
    
    Reading Joyces "several years ago" made me feel a bit "old", because i
    thought she was fairly "new" to notes. In fact, compared to T*****, and
    UOB and Dr. B I thought *I* was new to notes. 'COurse, *NEW* is all
    relative, isn't it ? 

    I'm not sure what my first Conference was either. Probably "FRIENDS" or
    something like H_R. (do you know how hard it is to type with ones
    tongue in ones cheek ??) 
    
    I think one of the two key events that made me stop and think about
    NOTING was on Mt. Monadnock, when a lady stopped me and asked me if I
    was Bob_the_Hiker. (My name is on my backpack). 
    
    During the course of the  conversation I learned she didn't work for
    DEC, but that a friend of hers did, and she remembered my name. 
    
    The second event was similar, and made me stop to think just how
    "public" these conferences are, whether we like it or not. 
    
    Other events is that occasionally I get a phone call, or I'll talk to
    someone for the first time, and they'll ask me if I'm "bob the hiker".
    Sometimes it'll be because of something they remembered and found
    useful. Occasionally, it'll be for "some other reason". 
    
    One such question I enjoyed asking was: "Which Conference did you see
    my name ? Oftentimes, they won't remember which one. or even which ones
    they "read regularly". That makes me think of one they may have read.
    ;^)
    
    Bob 
    
     
    
    
        
    

    When I started working for DEC in 1983 for Software Services in CT, we
    didn't have notes.  In fact, access to the Enet!  This doesn't make me
    old chronologically, but I *DO* think of those early days like the
    stone age!
    
    After a year and a half, a great thing happened!  Everyone in my
    district got DECmail accounts (boo!  hiss!).  This was to enhance
    district communication.  But, as messages started funneling down the
    pike from the bowels of the corporate machine, it became obvious, even
    to the uninitiated that there was something very different going on.
    
    One day while perusing the contents of the system account for
    interesting programs that might have found thier way onto our system, I
    discovered "Notes-11"!  Thinking I had found a nifty time-management
    tool, I proceeded to follow the instructions to create my own personal
    notesfile where I could keep my appointments!  Certainly a novel use of
    Notes.
    
    It didn't take long to realize how Notes could help tie together a
    district where the job description includes a mandatory  return to the
    home office once every year whether you want to or not; but in which
    large chunks of time (six months up to several years) are spent at
    customer sites.
    
    I proceeded to create THREE notesfiles; one for general discussion, one
    for horror stories (technical, or customer-relations) and one to
    introduce ourselves to one another (since there was usually a lot of
    turnover between annual meetings).
    
    Well, sorry to say that, although it was the right tool at the right
    time, it was the wrong place.  I think notes were percieved as
    career-limiting by many folks (especially after I talked the managers
    into participating, innocently thinking that this would be percieved as
    a "blessing" of the tool).
    
    *BUT*, the effort was not a total waste.  One of the more informed
    district personnel casually mentioned that it was possible to access
    notesfile on other nodes!  Aha!  And the rest is history!  My honorific
    in the district before I relocated to central Mass. was "Mr. Notes"
    because of my annual campaigns to get more disctrict people to frequent
    the notesfiles and use the fabulous resource they had available to
    them and COMMUNICATE!!!!!
    
    In fact, when times got tough, it was often the thought of losing
    access to notes and the Enet that kept me slogging back to Mother DEC.
    Simply, no other job could ofer the perks that are automatically
    available to most every DEC employee.
    
    Me personally, I tend to have moods that shift from year to year, and
    the notesfiles I'm interested in shift with them.  I've known about HR
    for a long time, but never really had the gumption to give it a try.
    
    I'm glad I finally did.
    
    Jim
    

    Re: -.1 Wow! A real old_timer. I thought I went back aways.

    I started at DEC in Jan of '85. By March I was reading NOTES_11. I
    can't remember what I was reading for notesfiles. I too, tend to rotate
    a crop of notesfiles depending on moods. I read H_R, ACOA, DEJAVU,
    mixed in with RED_SOX, SPORTS, DOOM, CARBUFFS, STAR_TREK, TV nightly
    and about 15 others to a lesser degree. I'm mostly RON but, I can get a
    flurry of replies in when the mood strikes.

    Pete

    Without this note file, I could not have made it through the past
    month.  Even rereading notes 1-800 in here has helped me cope and
    deal with misery that up until now I did not think I could ever deal
    with.

Well, I guess I'm a prehistoric noter...  I was around in 1980 when the
first notesfile was created, SYSNOTES, and quickly became involved in that
file as well as others that were primarily work-related, but not entirely
(namely TRIVIA).  And before that I was a user of the PLATO IV system from
which Len Kawell derived NOTES.

In the early days, the Easynet was the "Engineering Net", mostly engineers
and not a lot of employee interest type noting.  Still, I made some friends
through that medium.  In 1986, VAX NOTES came on the scene and at the
same time, the Engineering Net transformed into the Easynet, where tens of
thousands of employees from all walks of life became participants.  Hundreds
and thousands of employee-interest conferences started, and life has never
been the same since.

I used to participate a lot more than I do now - I'm another one of those
where people ask me if I ever do anything else but note.  Nowadays my
notes writing tends to be in product-oriented conferences or general
information type conferences.  But once in a while I'll put my two cents worth
in here or other places.  Of course, accepting the task of moderator of many
conferences is an involvement of an entirely different level, and, sadly
in some ways, it tends to inhibit my participation as a noter.  But I have
no regrets and frequently marvel at how radically NOTES has changed my
life for the better.

				Steve

    Some of you might be interested in reading an expanded version of
    the prehistoric noting history Steve eluded to, look at
    CVG::NOTES_HISTORY. Hit KP7 etc...
    
    Gail

>And before that I was a user of the PLATO IV system from
>which Len Kawell derived NOTES.



	 You're KIDDING!!!!!!!   PLATO was one of my babies on
	 college!  I played around on the PLATO systems for hours on
	 end!

	 Every time I mention it people say "Who's that?"

	 hahaha....

	 kath

    re .15,
    
    Kathy,
    
         Did you go to U of I :-)?  I thought they own the stuff when
    I was there :-).
    Eugene

    CERL (at the U of I) owned it, but a number of noted Universities had
    the software running on their Cybers.
    
    Jim (a former PLATOy addict)

PLATO IV was based at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana up
till about 1978, but there were hundreds of terminals connected to the
system at schools across the country.  The U of I sold PLATO to CDC which
set up independent systems.  It was a big money-loser for them.

Len Kawell was a systems programmer for PLATO IV - he also created VMS MAIL
based on PLATO's mail system.

There are a fair number of ex-PLATO folk around the net - Maggie Tarbet
is another.

Further discussion of the history of NOTES should probably go to NOTES_HISTORY
as Gail mentions.


Now, back to Joyce's topic.  I do see myself and others going through
stages of noting, from newcomer to old hand to venerated guru.  It's
fasinating to observe.  Those of us who have been at it a while tend to
sit back and a new group of active noters comes forward.  But for some,
like me, we can never let go....

			Steve

    Ah yes, Plato.  I seem to recall from my college days in the late
    seventies that there was a notes conference there called "ipr" (as in
    "interpersonal relations".)  From what I was able to tell, it was
    something like our dear departed Sexcetera.
    
    And then, of course, there was "Empire", the real-time multi-player
    Star Trek game.
    
    Oh yes, there were also instructional lessons on Plato as well.  :-)
    
    -- Mike

    in re .18
    
    hmmm,
    
    I know I've been a newcomer, about 3 1/2 years ago now, and
    I'm definitely an 'old hand' now, but 'guru'? What do you 
    think Steve? I can remember when I was always asking you
    advice as to how to do things..
    
    Bonnie

    Re: .20
    
    When people start asking YOU for advice on noting, you've just become
    a "guru", no matter what you may think of your qualifications...
    
    Re: .19
    
    One thing I find fascinating is that many of the sociological
    effects of NOTES were present on PLATO some fifteen years ago when
    I was using it.  And our customers are only now starting to go
    through what we've already experienced over the past nine years.
    (Hey, I wonder if anyone's planning a ten-year-anniversary
    celebration for NOTES in 1990?  Gads I feel old!)
    
    					Steve

    Shhhh....
    
    I hear a hint of a party in .21.
    
    ;-)  ;-)

"(Hey, I wonder if anyone's planning a ten-year-anniversary celebration for
NOTES in 1990?  Gads I feel old!)"

3 1/2 years ago, eh?  Think about it...  Most of the hardware/software written
3/12 years ago has gone to computer heaven since then.  Or at least been
severely written.  10 years ago? Dinosaurs!

Jim.

	Catch-up is the stage of noting I will always be in.  Work,
	work, work...I need a breather...what's happening in conference
	X...back to work...

	Dan

hmmm, guess I started about 3 or 4 years ago. I think SEXETERA and WHOAREYOU
were all I knew about at first. I was in western MA at the time and felt
kinda distant from the goings on. Then I moved to eastern MA (cringe) and
started adding files and going to parties and meeting good folk and all that
rot. I found it to be a great way to meet people when moving to a new place.
Eventually I met and married a noter. Somewhere along the line notes started
to change, people got offended, lost their sense of humore and notefiles
started disappearing. Seems like it just wasn't as much fun anymore (how
dare us have fun at work anyway). I got sick of the fights and hassles and
never-ending arguments and slowed down my noting quite a bit. These days I'm
much too busy to note most of the time. When I do have time I find that I'm 
bored with the whole thing and exit quickly. I don't know, maybe it's old age
creeping in...

Jenna

    re:.25
    
    I'd say the change in Notes alluded to by Jenna started after
    VAX Notes became an official company product. Before then, news
    of Notes and notesfiles were pretty much passed around by word
    of mouth, and people had to go digging to find out where to get
    the utilities, how to install what you needed, where to find the
    various notesfiles, and so forth. There was a time when it seemed
    like everyone who was anyone read and contributed to TRIVIA, and
    in fact, the first official Noters' Party (a party for *all*
    noters, not just the ones in a particular notesfile) was organized
    in that conference. Anyways, the Notes community back then was
    fairly small and just about everyone knew just about everyone else.
    
    Once VAX Notes became an official product, and was publicized all
    over, all of the riff-raff :-)  found out about our wonderful
    world and joined in. The more it expanded, the less like a family
    it became (to be more accurate, it changed from one *big* family
    into a number of smaller families).
    
    I know this must sound terribly elitist, but that's the way it was.
    And is.
    
    As for the sociological aspects of Notes, it was present long before
    PLATO, in a curious group of people known as science fiction fans.
    SF fans started publishing fan magazines (known as "fanzines") as
    far back as 60 years ago, circulated through the mail, and a large
    part of the sf fan community was built through the contacts made
    via these fanzines. At some point (I'm not sure exactly when), a
    new type of fanzine was developed called an "APA" (the acronym stood
    for "Amateur Press Association" (or ...Alliance).
    
    In an APA, each contributor would run off a specified number of
    copies of his or her contribution and send it to a central collator,
    who would put all of them together and mail the copies of the collation
    to each "member" of the APA. The members then read each others'
    "apazines", and their next contributions usually consisted of comments
    on the other members' apazines. And the comments would get commented
    on in the next collation, and so on. The frequencies of APA's varied:
    some were weekly, some monthly, some annually. APA's are still alive
    and well. Notes is really just an electronic form of APA, with an
    frequency of "immediately".
    
    Many of the same kinds of sociological effects that one sees in
    Notes happen in APA's. People from around the country, and sometimes
    around the globe, communicate and get to know others who live far
    away. They form bonds of friendship, which sometimes develop into
    romances. Eventually, they manage to meet (usually at science fiction
    conventions) with much the same effect as Noters meeting for the
    first time after knowing each other for years only as names on a
    page.
    
    --- jerry

    Re: -1

    Jerry, I do believe you are right...  I didn't make the first party,
    but I do remember very well, being visited by the infamous gorilla
    (AKA Griff)...

    As for me, with stages of noting, Well, for those that remember what
    PF1 stood for, they will remember Toscanini's (sp?), getting lost in
    Boston with Didier, the SOS, the hilltop, and long drives home in Fog... 
    /john's house, listening to Simon's son playing the piano, etc...

    I've also seen noting go from being a close knit family, as a select
    group of people, with a few select personal conferences, to a large
    group of people who come and go, and start the same topics all over
    again :-)...

    I remember using notes one weekend as therapy for me, and getting the
    whole noting world angry at me, to now getting angry at people who
    can't say NOTES HELP to learn the difference between REPLY and WRITE.

    Using NOTES today is so totally different than using notes in say
    1984, although its the same (well sorta) product. The atmosphere is not
    the same, and the carefree times we had with the group we had isn't the
    same either, although 80% of the same people are still here and in
    notes.

RE:          <<< Note 893.27 by ICESK8::KLEINBERGER "Satin and Velvet" >>>
>
>    Jerry, I do believe you are right...  I didn't make the first party,
>    but I do remember very well, being visited by the infamous gorilla
>    (AKA Griff)...
Ahhhh...the memories...Griff...Corky with his cat stories, Chester I
believe was the name of the cat...sending mail and using PHONE to France...

>    Using NOTES today is so totally different than using notes in say
>    1984, although its the same (well sorta) product. The atmosphere is not
>    the same, and the carefree times we had with the group we had isn't the
>    same either, although 80% of the same people are still here and in
>    notes.
I liked the carefree times.  The noting of today, at least for me, is always
catch-up.  So many conferences with so many notes...I turn into a Read-Only
Noter.

Dan___just_call_me_RON

    
    Having been with DEC for about 7 years, I guess I'm a real late
    starter as I didn't discover NOTES until about 15 months ago....
    
    I became addicted for six months, came off it cold turkey, gradually
    returned, and now I get my kicks from turning other people on to
    it! I really enjoy hearing someone mention a question or concern
    and helping by pointing them to the right conference for support
    when they've never used Notes before....
    
    And I have had times when I couldn't have got through the week
    without the support of the Noting community. 
    
    'gail
     

    I got started in the original Soapbox when it was on HOTTUB:: in
    Colorado Springs and in WhOaReYoU in Paris, when it was "interactive". 
    First party was a 'boxers party at Corky Towle's.
    
    I think that my noting has dropped off in tone significantly since
    Corporate Security stepped in and axed Sexcetera... now you have to be
    careful what you say and how you say it.  We have an official policy
    even!  T'aint the same.  
    
    I am still active in Womannotes and a couple other ValDif conferences.
    I also remain active in Digital.  Other than that, it's mostly
    work-related these days.  Not much to say that hasn't already been
    said...
    
    grins,
    Marge <WRU_376>

    when i first started temping in digital (....3 years ago?....)
    i was urged to try out the notes, only i didn't know how to get
    in and didn't want to mess up the accounts i was borrowing.
    
    then finally, when i was in a semi-permanent position (not filling
    in for somebody on vacation) i tried it out, and became addicted.
    then i got hired, and learned about the usenet.  now i split my
    time between usenet and notes.
    
    for a while i fanatically followed several conferences, but now
    it doesn't concern me as much.  i know that tomorrow the conference
    will still be there, and i can read it then.  (usenet is different,
    articles expire after a set period of time)
    
    

    just a silly comment that popped up in my head....
    
    re: 893.5
/    punch of immediacy. In my various studies I've read about the movers
/    and shakers of past generations and it seemed they kept active
/    corespondence with their distant friends as well as spending nights
/    in the pub discussing their views of the world. Our version of this
/    is notes. Maybe we aren't the Impressionist painters or the new
/    existentialists but we are a community exchanging ideas and views
/    that shape the way we face the world.
    
/    We are the technocrats of the information society learning to live
/    with an abundance of information comming at a speed that would have
/    astounded past generations. When we argue the issues we form and
    
    in a few years, some cyberpunks will find a new way to meld their
    consciences, and one will make a comment that "Maybe we aren't the
    Impressionist painters or the easynet noters, but..."
    
    i told you it was silly, didn't i?
    

    
 >>   When people start asking YOU for advice on noting, you've just become
 >>   a "guru", no matter what you may think of your qualifications...
   
    
      Steve,
    
      If what you say is true....then I am a "guru"!  
    
    
      Steve?  Steve?  
    
    
      Now quit laughing!!!
    
      
      I've often wondered if our stages in noting reflect what is going on
      in our professional and personal lives....
    
      H_R introduced me to the world of noting and I've stuck by it - even
      if only as "read only" noter.  I must admit that the highlight was
      meeting other noters at the Fall Party!  
    
      Kris - aka Krash, K2 
    
    
      To L, J, & J - I haven't forgotten the pictures!!!  I've been swamped
      but I hope to have them to you by March!