Eugene,
You propose a project that is dear to my heart -- I have many times said
(here and elsewhere) that this material should be available in hard copy
-- not only have I wanted to refer to it myself, it comes up often with
students and colleagues. I hear myself saying, "we just did a thread
on that on the list."
Sometimes I manage to print out a couple of posts for the person, but
generally it's sort of lost, or there's too much, or somehow I don't get
to it (& my system hates downloading).
However, having had some personal experience in editing and publishing, I
*strongly* advise against attempting a whole-hog, complete, stand-alone
organized "manual".
The material is too vast, amorphous, indeterminate, endless and unwieldy.
My suggestion would be a series of "books" or compilations, or manuals, or
whatever you might call them, titled "The Platinum Thread," "The Negative
Thread," "The Gum Thread," The Theory Thread," "The Equipment Thread,"
etc. etc. etc. In some cases where the material isn't so voluminous,
several topics could be combined -- say everything relating to the
workroom, such as exposure lights, plate burners, contact
frames, applicators, vacuum easels, etc. Media like platinum or gum
(probably the two major processs here) could probably each fill their own
book.
My suggestion would be an edited version of the dialog as it actually took
place, but *****with an index*****. Years ago, with one assistant I did a
31-page index for a 222 page book in 5 (very) long days with a (very)
buggy new program from Pagemaker. Presumably the software is greatly
improved.
With an index, you could look up "washing," "clearing," "supplies,"
"coating," etc., and no need to try to shape this oozing-out-in-all-
directions material into a "proper" format with beginning, middle and end
-- a simple once-over as on our FAQ would probably suffice for intro.
The looseleaf idea might be just the thing.
However, I do not believe you can publish someone's words without their
permission. I am told (by others who claimed to know) that anything put out
on a newsgroup is public domain, but an e-mail list isn't, because e-mail
isn't.
> Just think, this will give a whole new meaning to the phrase "see the
> archive."
Yes, we could put it on a T-shirt.
Judy