The purpose of this blog is to provide a single location on the internet where interested parties can find papers, advice and discussions from experts in the sport.
No forum of this type currently exists. It is different from email, bulletin boards, forums, and collections of papers by one author on his/her own website.
Here, the intention is to not only collect existing works, but more so to encourage new works by those recognized experts, and also some new works written and edited cooperatively by several experts. Note that these works will, in most cases, be carefully structured and thoughtfully edited rather than the "off the top of my head" type of comments seen in emails and, to a lesser extent, in bulletin boards and open forums.
But since we're just beginning, we'd like to hear your ideas.
How do you think this blog should be organized and run?
Before answering, think about the existing communications available to Bullseye shooters.
- Bullseye-L - A by-subscription email list. A member sends a message to "the list". That message is forwarded as email to the hundreds of subscribers. Anyone may ask any on-topic question at any time, and anyone may respond, either privately or to "the list." In practice, volume may vary from several dozen messages in a single day to as little as one or two in a week. Additionally, the list moderator (and owner of the service) occasionally steps in to keep the discussions on the topic of Bullseye shooting and, in extreme cases, exercises his sole discretion in removing individuals from the list. Although the moderator is a benevolent dictator, all subscribers understand and accept these "rules of life" on the list.
- Encyclopedia of Bullseye - A traditional web site with articles, reference works and information of interest to Bullseye shooters. Inclusion of content is at the web-site owner's discretion and through his direct action -- that is, he must do something to add to or modify the web-site (or grant others those same priviledges).
- Various forums - Too numerous to list. Several gun-related forums have sections or are used by those interested in Bullseye shooting. These are "open forums" to which anyone may pose a question and anyone may respond. The quality of information is highly variable and it can difficult for newcomers to tell which are the answers from experts of significant achievement in Bullseye and which answers come with a great deal of sincerety but little else. Messages and responses tend to be relatively short but, on occasion, extended discussions with valuable content may develop. Readers may need to follow these extended discussions on an on-going basis as ideas may develop in one direction but later change and "supercede" earlier comments.
This blog hopes to find a slightly different niche, one in which information has a longer lifetime than the flurry of emails on Bullseye-L and its limited archive, where accomplished individuals can post articles at a time and in a manner of their choosing, where newcomers can find expert information without having to sift wheat from chaff, and where experts can choose to collectively develop an article or series of articles through a cooperative effort, all without requiring a moderator's or owner's direct intervention. In other words, the selected contributors maintain the blog's content.
What do you think? How should we do this?
Please add comments to let us know.
