Google Groups Quagmire
My Journey through Google Groups
I have not participated in an on-line group in a long time, so this was an eye opening experience for me. There was a time that I was part of the old “eGroups” which I found to be very user friendly and understandable. However, I found USENET to be confusing. Perhaps I wasn’t using it correctly and perhaps it was not intended to be a “new and improved” version of eGroups. The following is a description of my experience, maybe you can tell me what I did wrong.
My journey took me through several phases as I learned how to focus in on my searches and refine my interests. I spent the first two hours, 4:30-6:30 pm, doing what was assigned, exploring the archive. The most important thing that I was looking for was that the “group” was active. I discovered that you could see by the dates on the posts that a certain thread was “dead” but I found it frustrating that I kept going down defunct paths. I realized that the “advanced search” feature could locate posts that were more recent, but I wasn’t very good at the searches that way. I would put in a subject of interest in the search box and would find information, but often times it would be an article from some professional source instead of an actual group. I found this to be interesting because I thought that the “groups” would be much more defined, but basically, as near as I could tell, “groups” were just threads that related to a central comment. I couldn’t tell that there was an official group, just a lot of miscellaneous conversations that loosely related to the topic or group name that google had given it. I found it even more difficult to tell how you would know as a user how to get to a specific conversation of interest and how you would return to that exact same place later. I searched a variety of topics and groups which I can list but that seems superfluous to my actual experience. Around 6:30 pm I signed up for a user account.
When I signed up for my user account at 6:30 pm, I was informed that I would get an e-mail soon to verify my account status and then I could post to the group conversations. I was excited because I wanted to post on a conversation that related to Dan Rather. However, I did not get my e-mal, so I waited and surfed and waited and explored. During this waiting time I discovered a lot in my explorations. I found that there were several conversations related to Dan Rather’s “memo” issue and most of them got quite heated, off topic and insulting. Yikes, in fact, most of the political conversations ended up with “you moron” followed with “fascist pig.” So, I decided to explore some topics on the more inane side of celebrity. I found that some people hate Owen Wilson’s nose and some love the look of it. I moved on to women’s rights and activism, antifacism and education. I had to be careful and choosy in my decisions of what threads to follow. It was like going to a consignment store and having to pick the quality items out of the junk that was available. I am not in to thrift store shopping and sifting through scrap to find the one gem item. And, I didn’t like it any better in Google groups trying to find the one or two valid conversations in which to participate. I kept rechecking my e-mail for my confirmation message so that I could post, but to no avail. So, I continued to explore, but this time I clicked on every possible link that I could on the Google groups page. I had no idea that Google offered so much. I had always used Google for just a web search. So I was thrilled to see the “Images” feature and “Fruggle” and in the more section, there were all sorts of features. I was especially pleased to know that you could put a mathematical equation in the search box and have it solve problems for you and the word define feature was cool. I didn’t know about this. In addition, I read everything about posting etiquette which I though was interesting and relevant. And, it seems like most people adhere to these recommendations in their posts, except for the real heated political conversations. Last, I discovered that the Simpsons had the most threaded and active discussions of them all.
Alas, at 9:00 pm, I signed up for a different user account using a new computer and was able to get in to post immediately. I felt pressured to post where I knew there were current threads, so I posted to a conversation related to the Apprentice on NBC. I know, not the most cerebral, but the most entertaining. I had watched the last Apprentice show and was excited to comment on the firing of “Bradford” so I found a link in the “groups” section of rec.arts.tv. I found a comment to post to and when I did, it looked to me like my post was going to go somewhere different than intended because the comments in my draft box had to do with free iPods and not the Apprentice. Anyway, I wrote my comments and posted. To my surprise, the computer said that my post was successfully done but that it could take 6 to 9 hours to post. Yikes! I was so surprised. I knew that this was an asynchronous discussion but this time delay was unexpected. I guess I thought that there would be more opportunity for interaction. That someone would read my post and respond with-in at least half an hour. I’ll have to check back next week, if I can find it again to see if anyone responded. I continued as assigned and posted everywhere that I could where there was a current conversation. I posted on a review of “Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow”, participated in more Apprentice review and the breading of bearded dragons and same sex marriage and who would win at the Emmys. I got so caught up and lost about where I was at that I cannot tell you now Dave how to get there. Today, before this note, I tried to pinpoint my exact location for you but I could not discover again exactly where I was and I don’t think my comments have yet posted because I know I was somewhere close to where I posted for the Apprentice. Anyway, you’ll have to be patient with me. I haven’t participated on Google groups before and I’m sure there must be a more organized way to do things. All in all, I ended my Journey about 11:00 pm, with 5 ½ hours of haphazard exploration and episodic posting. My final feelings were, why go to Google groups when you can participant in more interactive chats on-line?
I have not participated in an on-line group in a long time, so this was an eye opening experience for me. There was a time that I was part of the old “eGroups” which I found to be very user friendly and understandable. However, I found USENET to be confusing. Perhaps I wasn’t using it correctly and perhaps it was not intended to be a “new and improved” version of eGroups. The following is a description of my experience, maybe you can tell me what I did wrong.
My journey took me through several phases as I learned how to focus in on my searches and refine my interests. I spent the first two hours, 4:30-6:30 pm, doing what was assigned, exploring the archive. The most important thing that I was looking for was that the “group” was active. I discovered that you could see by the dates on the posts that a certain thread was “dead” but I found it frustrating that I kept going down defunct paths. I realized that the “advanced search” feature could locate posts that were more recent, but I wasn’t very good at the searches that way. I would put in a subject of interest in the search box and would find information, but often times it would be an article from some professional source instead of an actual group. I found this to be interesting because I thought that the “groups” would be much more defined, but basically, as near as I could tell, “groups” were just threads that related to a central comment. I couldn’t tell that there was an official group, just a lot of miscellaneous conversations that loosely related to the topic or group name that google had given it. I found it even more difficult to tell how you would know as a user how to get to a specific conversation of interest and how you would return to that exact same place later. I searched a variety of topics and groups which I can list but that seems superfluous to my actual experience. Around 6:30 pm I signed up for a user account.
When I signed up for my user account at 6:30 pm, I was informed that I would get an e-mail soon to verify my account status and then I could post to the group conversations. I was excited because I wanted to post on a conversation that related to Dan Rather. However, I did not get my e-mal, so I waited and surfed and waited and explored. During this waiting time I discovered a lot in my explorations. I found that there were several conversations related to Dan Rather’s “memo” issue and most of them got quite heated, off topic and insulting. Yikes, in fact, most of the political conversations ended up with “you moron” followed with “fascist pig.” So, I decided to explore some topics on the more inane side of celebrity. I found that some people hate Owen Wilson’s nose and some love the look of it. I moved on to women’s rights and activism, antifacism and education. I had to be careful and choosy in my decisions of what threads to follow. It was like going to a consignment store and having to pick the quality items out of the junk that was available. I am not in to thrift store shopping and sifting through scrap to find the one gem item. And, I didn’t like it any better in Google groups trying to find the one or two valid conversations in which to participate. I kept rechecking my e-mail for my confirmation message so that I could post, but to no avail. So, I continued to explore, but this time I clicked on every possible link that I could on the Google groups page. I had no idea that Google offered so much. I had always used Google for just a web search. So I was thrilled to see the “Images” feature and “Fruggle” and in the more section, there were all sorts of features. I was especially pleased to know that you could put a mathematical equation in the search box and have it solve problems for you and the word define feature was cool. I didn’t know about this. In addition, I read everything about posting etiquette which I though was interesting and relevant. And, it seems like most people adhere to these recommendations in their posts, except for the real heated political conversations. Last, I discovered that the Simpsons had the most threaded and active discussions of them all.
Alas, at 9:00 pm, I signed up for a different user account using a new computer and was able to get in to post immediately. I felt pressured to post where I knew there were current threads, so I posted to a conversation related to the Apprentice on NBC. I know, not the most cerebral, but the most entertaining. I had watched the last Apprentice show and was excited to comment on the firing of “Bradford” so I found a link in the “groups” section of rec.arts.tv. I found a comment to post to and when I did, it looked to me like my post was going to go somewhere different than intended because the comments in my draft box had to do with free iPods and not the Apprentice. Anyway, I wrote my comments and posted. To my surprise, the computer said that my post was successfully done but that it could take 6 to 9 hours to post. Yikes! I was so surprised. I knew that this was an asynchronous discussion but this time delay was unexpected. I guess I thought that there would be more opportunity for interaction. That someone would read my post and respond with-in at least half an hour. I’ll have to check back next week, if I can find it again to see if anyone responded. I continued as assigned and posted everywhere that I could where there was a current conversation. I posted on a review of “Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow”, participated in more Apprentice review and the breading of bearded dragons and same sex marriage and who would win at the Emmys. I got so caught up and lost about where I was at that I cannot tell you now Dave how to get there. Today, before this note, I tried to pinpoint my exact location for you but I could not discover again exactly where I was and I don’t think my comments have yet posted because I know I was somewhere close to where I posted for the Apprentice. Anyway, you’ll have to be patient with me. I haven’t participated on Google groups before and I’m sure there must be a more organized way to do things. All in all, I ended my Journey about 11:00 pm, with 5 ½ hours of haphazard exploration and episodic posting. My final feelings were, why go to Google groups when you can participant in more interactive chats on-line?
posted by Kami at
8:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home