|
| intro
|
| When
the internet became something available to folks other than
physicists, folks in classics and ancient history rather quickly
embraced it as a means of communication. Quite early on, lists such
as Classics-l and Ancien-l came into existence and they became
rather high quality fora for discussions of various things about the
ancient world. They also became fora for idle chit chat and assorted
other conversations which are probably less useful. Whatever the
case, these (and other) lists had the foresight to archive the
conversations but, unfortunately, in their current form, such
archives are much underutilized, both by professionals and by
layfolk who are interested in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Perhaps even more disturbing, however, in recent years we have seen
some portions of archives simply disappear as servers or owners
change. And so, one day while contemplating my navel I thought how
wonderful it would be if some of these conversations were made
available on the web, with some sort of editing involved to make
them more readable and useful. Thus the concept of the 'golden
thread' was born. |
| editing
principles |
For
the most part, anything presented is pretty much as originally
posted, save that I've trimmed the headers to include just the date
(in case you want to track it down in archives somewhere or in case
you're wondering how up-to-date a bibliography might be), the name
of the author where known (not always apparent) and the subject
(which might change during the course of a thread). I've taken out
email addresses to protect privacy of individuals (and, in any
event, in many cases they are no longer valid). Also taken out are
quotations of previous messages, except in very long threads when a
quotation of a few lines might be necessary to understand context.
All signatures, thank yous, me toos, and any other passing comments
which don't really add anything to the conversation are removed as
well. If I see a spelling mistake along the way, I've usually
corrected it, but this really hasn't been a priority. The overall
goal, as stated above, is to present useful conversations in a
readable format.
Wherever
possible, I've included a note on where I've culled a particular
conversation from. Generally, these are hyperlinked in some way so
if you click on the reference, you should be taken to the unedited
conversation or to instructions on how to get there. Of course,
you'll have to wade through everything else that was going on at the
same time, but it seems that something like this is necessary for
intellectual honesty reasons. |
| how
to navigate |
On
the main golden threads page you are presented with some rather
broadly-defined topics. Below the heading for each topic will appear
a box with a light background like this one which lists the latest
subjects (in the sense of a subject line from an email list) to be
added to that section. You can either click on the subject itself
and be taken directly to it in a new browser window, or you can
click on the topic heading (in the darker grey box) to be taken to
that topic's main page, where all subjects for the topic are listed
with a brief synopsis of what each conversation is about. This will
also open in a new browser window. To return whence you came, of
course, just close the browser window.
n.b.:
Because some subjects might fit into more than one topic, you might
find them listed under more than one topic. |
|