29th November 2005, 03:50 PM
I think Britarch was at one stage quite a sensible and serious list for discussion of archaeology. I am talking of a period about 5 to 10 years ago now when most subscribers were in fact academics, museum archaeologists and other senior professionals (ie. those with email access).
Sadly nowadays it is dominated by largely circular discussions amongst the same regulars. I think the proportion of 'lurkers' to active members is even higher than here. Its format (that of email-based discussion) is now rather old-fashioned and forums (fora?) such as BAJR are more common, and, thankfully more available to a much broader audience.
At its best Britarch provided a forum for "I've recently discovered X what is it?" type of queries to a wide, generally well-informed audience. It still does this, but many of us who would like to contribute to such discussions are put off (and gave up subscribing a long time ago) by endless rants about metal-detecting and such like.
Perhaps there is a role for BAJR to also answer actual research-based questions (I know a few have appeared from time to time) in the way that Britarch used to do?
(As well as continuing its predominant function as a safety valve for the steam built up by hard-working professionals at the various coalfaces of British archaeology, of course!).
Sadly nowadays it is dominated by largely circular discussions amongst the same regulars. I think the proportion of 'lurkers' to active members is even higher than here. Its format (that of email-based discussion) is now rather old-fashioned and forums (fora?) such as BAJR are more common, and, thankfully more available to a much broader audience.
At its best Britarch provided a forum for "I've recently discovered X what is it?" type of queries to a wide, generally well-informed audience. It still does this, but many of us who would like to contribute to such discussions are put off (and gave up subscribing a long time ago) by endless rants about metal-detecting and such like.
Perhaps there is a role for BAJR to also answer actual research-based questions (I know a few have appeared from time to time) in the way that Britarch used to do?
(As well as continuing its predominant function as a safety valve for the steam built up by hard-working professionals at the various coalfaces of British archaeology, of course!).