Too frazzled dealing with the beginning of the semester and a household of sick aardvarks (evil, evil stomach flu) to do much. But a question for readers: a Middle East studies colleague of mine emailed me the other day suggesting that a listserv of some kind would be a useful addition to Abu Aardvark, since lots of people interested in the stuff can't remember or find the time to check out blogs but do pay attention to things showing up in their email. This could look a couple of ways: emailing out the posts when they are posted, or (more likely) a digest every fixed period (couple of days, weekly). It could include the whole text, or just summaries and links. It could include or not include the sidebar Arab media links. The problems: listservs aren't a blog, and aren't as conducive to comments and discussion; not everyone actually wants more email flooding their inbox; I don't know where to find the software to make a real listserv run; and I definitely don't need anything which is going to add serious amounts of work to my life right now. What do people think? Feel free to comment here or by email at the new google email address.
UPDATE: okay, following Andy's advice, I've set up a Feedburner email subscription service. The subscription form is at the top of the left sidebar. We'll see how this works out, and how many people really want this feature, but I can't really see the harm since it's fully automated.
People need to read themselves some blogs. Too bad if they can't figure out how to type in http://abuaardvark.typepad.com
Posted by: praktike | September 10, 2006 at 09:00 AM
It's very easy to set up a Google group or Yahoo group that acts as a list serve. Or you could teach them how to use RSS feeds...
Posted by: boz | September 10, 2006 at 09:58 AM
A second to boz's notion of using RSS feeds. For users of Mozilla Firefox there is a superb extension called RSS Ticker that sets up a line at either the top of bottom and through which slowly scrolls the headlines of new RSS catches. Left-click on one and its associated webpage pops up in the same or a new tab, depending on your setting. Alternately you can right-click to pop up a selection of various choices of what to do with an item. I've been using it for about two months and couldn't be happier with it.
Posted by: Minnesotachuck | September 10, 2006 at 10:34 AM
Suggest this to your colleagues who are not regular blog readers: Create a personal page at bloglines.com (it takes seconds) or some other such place (I think an earlier comment suggested Google and Yahoo have this as well) and use it to subscribe to your favorite blog (also takes seconds--all you need is their addreess--and is free). Once a week (or whenever you remember it and and have time) you can look over the "headlines" and selectively read those that capture your interest.
Great meeting you at APSA, Abu Aardvark!
Posted by: MLB | September 10, 2006 at 11:50 AM
Let them use RSS.
Posted by: Nur al-Cubicle | September 10, 2006 at 01:20 PM
hook up RSS via Feedburner -- it has the option to subscribe by e-mail... subscribers would receive a nightly e-mail digest of that day's posts.
Posted by: revolute | September 10, 2006 at 01:59 PM
Something in e-mail format would be fantastic, especially as there are often posts I would like to share with other people. I think it would be a great way to offer a 'teaser' to get people to come read the full posts and see what else is on offer.
I am not an expert in such things, but I think that something through yahoo groups or google lists would be fairly easy to set up, if you're willing to write headlines and four-line or so digests of your posts. Good luck and keep us informed of the outcome!
Posted by: Paul | September 10, 2006 at 03:20 PM
Marc:
While I make it regular practice to read the blog, I would love to get a stream of your left-side article links via e-mail. This is one of the most interesting features of the site (while I read Arabic, I don't spead much time wading through Arabic-language media, and your links are a reminder).
Charlie
Posted by: Charlie | September 10, 2006 at 04:02 PM
Keep in mind that if you have a Yahoo group that could change the dynamic a lot - if I'm on a mailing list I expect to be able to post to it, and I don't think that's what you have in mind.
You could have a yahoo list for readers to discuss Middle East issues generally, and you post to it whenever you (or for that matter someone else) have a new blog entry for us to read, in addition to having the blog. But if it's just about updates, then I'm sure the RSS feed will be enough for most people. (I come here via a well-worn bookmark.)
Posted by: Schwa-Schwa | September 12, 2006 at 11:47 PM