[AccessD] Moderator Message

OK, I've been harping on the way things are, so I want to offer some
positive suggestions:

1. Produce web content, not email content.
Our content needs to be visible to the outside world. A mail digest is
hidden from search engines. Even the archive is a black hole -- I've never
seen any AccessD post show up on any web search, ever. Someone tell me  if
they've ever seen AccessD in even the first ten pages of search results.

2. Move to a blog format.
I increasingly rely on blog posts in my technical searches. I appreciate
that someone has taken the care to produce a cogent post that answers a
particular topic. Blog posts can be perma-linked, tagged, and categorized --
a huge boon for search engines. You also get a constant, fresh stream of new
content, which boosts search rankings.
One of the problems with an email thread is that you get: Question, debate,
flames, baiting, then off-topic rambling near the end. Sometimes there is an
answer in there, sometimes not. That's why email-thread format groups are my
last option in search.
But, if you reframe the email thread as an incubator for a blog post, you
present the opportunity for the person with the best response to summarize
their post as a blog entry. That's easy, because most of the article is
already written.
Everyone wins -- blog posters get web exposure, questions get distilled into
a clear and easy-to-follow format, answers get vetted by a community of
experts, and you gain in search engine rankings which will draw new
subscribers.

3. Co-opt Experts Exchange
It burns me that experts-exchange, AKA 'drooling idiots trying to charge
money for non-answers', is so dominating in technical search results. They
understand SEO, and are clobbering use in terms of exposure, even if they
have nothing to offer. What a waste!
We have an incredible pool of talent, that, given convenient tools, could
handily beat expert sex change in terms of quality of content.

But, if we keep hiding our light under a bushel, we really need to accept
that AccessD is a private club of friends who chat about what's going on in
their technical lives, and occasionally answer an Access question, too.

-Ken