>
> I have been following this thread as everyone else has.  It appears that
> we have missed the point here.  We want to make the vanagon list more
> useful and more accessable.
>
> The problem is that there is a lot of information in the archives
> which make it difficult to search.  Alot of the information should be
> temporary (ie. For sale, unrelated discussions on topics other
> than vanagons etc.)
>
> If this type of "temporary" information was automatically deleted from the
> archives and we could force categorization (ie. electrical, camper,
> body, suspension etc), I believe that using an online archive system would
> be much easier.
>
I think Dan has a good point here -- I find the Vanagon archives to be
tedious and hard to find useful information in.

The Type2 archives are a bit better in that recent messages are listed
by subject at the archive site, though I don't know about older
messages.

Josh Rodgers, on the type2 list, has done a good thing and created the
Type2 Technical Reference Library, which is linked to the Type2.com web
page.  He has taken the time to set up categories (like suspension,
engine, etc) and compile a bunch of articles from the list and from
other technical resources (like some articles from my tech page) so that
when you click on your category of choice, you are presented with a list
of available articles.  I think this kind of thing would be great for
the Vanagon list.

All we need is a sucker, er, I mean volunteer, to put this together.

This way we could weed out all the non-technical posts such as
"unsubscribe vanagon" and could create an archive of useful technical
info, with maybe a separate category for "list fluff" :-)
--
Sean Bartnik
Fredericksburg, Virginia
1981 Volkswagen Vanagon L Westfalia
1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible
Ex-1975 Volkswagen Beetle
Ex-1978 Volkswagen Bus
http://www.type2.com/bartnik/myvan.htm
http://www.mwc.edu/~sbart7kb/vwbooks.htm