Still need DMCTech?

[deloreanernst@xxxx]

I got a personal e-mail regarding the DMCTech site in view of the new search 
utility on the DMCNews site. Since others have expressed the same idea, I 
thought I'd like to share my response with the DML and DMCTech Group lists:

Hi-

I've checked out the new google search engine at the dmcnews site, and it is 
an improvement but I'm hardly overwhelmed. I'm still getting whole digests 
brought up, not individual messages or highlighted words. Heck, I could do 
that before. I ran a search on my screen name and came up with 130 entries 
over the last 2 years I've been on the list. On the actual DML site with 
the OLD search engine I came up with 30 last month alone. At least I get 
individual messages, bot whole digests. (I did it a few days ago... some 
numbers may be slightly off but you get my drift. It's not finding 
everything! I didn't just start writing in January.) And maybe I'm a search 
engine dunce, but I STILL can't see where to get the search words 
highlighted. And the google search engine is not all that intuitive about 
it, at least not for me. It's way, way feeble compared to what I have in mind.
Let's put it this way; I have all the back issues of DeLorean World... a 
stack over a foot long on my shelf. There are tech articles in every issue. 
The old search engine is like thumbing through by reading the index in the 
front of every magazine, through all 18 or so year's worth of issues to try 
and find what you want. The new search engine, since it can "learn," is like 
using the DW index that lists all the topics and where they appear, sometimes 
several limited-scope articles per item. A big help, but you still have to 
flip back and forth among several issues reading a lot of stuff you don't 
need, in a "manual" contained in 4 huge binders. Not to pick on D World, but 
it's not primarily a tech manual... and neither are the DML archives, are 
they? 
That's why I'm asking contributors to send in their articles to DMCTech. By 
the way, everything you send to D World is copyrighted by D World. Since 
you've sold it to them, I'd guess you don't retain rights of republication. 
Maybe a DW staffer would care to shed light on that. At DMCTech, you still 
retain the rights to republish or whatever your own material. And in the 
early days, DW couldn't pay a cent for contributed articles either. 
Further, the new search engine doesn't address the "newbie file" idea at all. 
Unless you know WHAT to search for, you can't find anything!
What I want to do is something like a good Chilton manual online, and 
eventually in print. Everything you need in concise format. Including stuff 
that isn't already there. Can you picture it? Don't you want it? I do!

Wayne A. Ernst
DMCTech Group