What the Different INA Internet Services are Intended For

General
1

There’s enough turnover in the INA membership that it’s useful to revisit at regular intervals what the various INA services on the internet are designated for. (This was last widely publicized in the Winter 2022 Update. The following link looks funny, but should get interested members to that issue: International Nonsuch Association - Authorization required .)

So, answers to a few FAQs…

Why can’t I just post whatever I want, wherever I want? In the same spirit as having radio channels for designated purposes, the INA decided sometime back that we wanted to: (1) keep it simple for members with different interests to know where to go; and, (2) simplify the lives of our limited volunteer pool by not requiring them to do everything everywhere all at once.

So, just what is designated for what uses, and why? In short, here we’ve got four open and one dead channel:

  1. Nonsuch Community Forum on Discourse (https://nonsuch.discourse.group).
    This is intended primarily for more technical discussions. These include projects, repairs, sailing skills, boat performance, instrumentation, weather services, sailing apps, etc.
  2. Nonsuch Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/104618380180923).
    This is intended primarily for, as someone who likes it said to me, “… social connections with like-minded people the text and … to help build relationships and connections.”
  3. Nonsuch on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/nonsuch_sailing/)
    Got great pictures you want to share? Want to look at great pictures? Want to talk about 'em? Go here.
  4. The INA website itself (www.Nonsuch.org).
    This is intended to be the hub: a repository for information of long-term interest, links to the other services, and information that is potentially of interest to members regardless of their social media preferences. (The latter, for example, is why you’ll find the INA Marketplace for buying and selling stuff there.)
  5. Nonsuch on Twitter, now X ( NonsuchSailing (@NonsuchSailing) / X )
    We established this in January 2021. The last “tweet” posted was January 19th of that year. In other words, it exists but isn’t active. If we had more volunteers, we’d probably ask one of them to go to the trouble of killing it.

So, why didn’t someone tell me that before? Well, we try to. But, time flies – as it turns out, whether you’re having fun or not. With turnover in both membership and volunteers, we don’t always get to things as fast, or as well, or as often as might happen in a perfect world.

Well, I’ve seen stuff on one or another of these sites that isn’t consistent with what you just said. What gives? Well, not everything you hear on marine radio follows the intended protocols either. Plus, we try to cut reasonable slack. Plus, as previously mentioned, we don’t have all that many volunteers, and thus they can’t be everywhere doing everything all at once.

-- Bob

2

Question asked in a different thread:

Answer:

Nonsuch Facebook and the Nonsuch Community Forum on Discourse (aka known as “here”, “us” or “we”) are overseen by entirely different sets of volunteers, so we don’t have good answers here for questions about Facebook policies.

As for here, as mentioned in the previous post, the Forum’s intended primarily for more technical discussions. These include projects, repairs, sailing skills, boat performance, instrumentation, weather services, sailing apps, etc. Plus, we try to cut reasonable slack.

“Reasonable slack” is a fuzzy term, which currently gets defined as we go along, by me (aka Bob, the moderator, that idiot, and other less printable terms).

Generally, I try to interpret that term based partly on how the group seems to be reacting and partly on whether it connects in some way to my general sense of sailboat-related topics and how far it’s wandered from Nonsuches.

To give some recent examples, a post about a carbon fiber repair on a non-Nonsuch boat was allowed because some Nonsuch owners also have carbon fiber masts and a consequent interest in repair issues.

A recent post about a stolen Hinckley Bermuda 40 was allowed but tags were added marking it as humor because it appeared to be one member gently teasing another. Also, our boats can be stolen, too, and who doesn’t like to hear about Hinckleys?

Another thread, about U.S./Canadian political contretemps, is temporarily down for moderation discussions. Frankly, I hope not to see this forum become disputatious but – as I’ve said to some of the parties – also don’t want to pretend, “la, la, la, … everything’s fine.”

-- Bob