WEBSITE, Round 1: Webmail vs. AEA Docs

[Maribeth]

In this digital, wifi-connected age, websites are a favorite division in this year's December Madness competition! Much debate about the matchup between longtime favorite Webmail (featuring team members as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL, among others) and rival AEA Docs, which provides easy access to AEA agreements, stage management packets, and other helpful forms and reference material. Webmail's accessibility on mobile platforms like smart phones give it a decided edge in this match, but don't underestimate AEA Docs- it has the utility and functionality to go far!

Cast your vote here! And tell the world why that site has your vote.

Polls will be open until midnight EST, December 3.

[Tempest]

AEA docs are only useful if you're working an AEA show. While those are coveted gigs, they by no means cover the majority of shows out there. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone uses Gmail, these days.

[loebtmc]

I think this was a badly matched pair. Email yes. Webmail - sucks the big one. But AEA docs only work on AEA shows. So it's a tie for who's not useless!

[Mac Calder]

I dunno - I love gmail's interface. it is fast and responsive, it tracks conversations well... there are a few limitations with being in the browser, but as HTML and browsers develop the shortfalls are disappearing quickly and by being solely responsible for the environment, google have been able to innovate features which they could not do if restricted by the email client.

TAGs are a much better alternative to folders in my humble opinion for email. I use outlook for work - as far as email clients go, it is probably one of the best - I have all my filters and I use categories and tasks - but they are not quite up to par with tags.

The main reason I like tags is so often an email will start off about one subject related to some show and then merge into something else.

In outlook, let's say I get an email related to Les Miserables (my current nightmare - it is still 3 weeks until it tours into my venue and it is killing me), in this example, the subject indicates the contents relates to some venue modification projects, however after dealing with the two projects  it then moves on to requirement for an order of water, alterations to crewing  and that the production manager has attached  the risk assessments to be approved.

I have three options with this email - I can either file all Les Mis stuff in one folder which is nearly unmanageable - my current les mis directory has over 1200 emails - if they were all in one folder I would not be able to cope...  I can copy and paste into every sub directory the email deals with (LM2014/Projects/Unistrut, LM2014/Projects/Cement Penetrations, LM2014/Catering, LM2014/Crewing and LM2014/Risk Assessments/Pending) or I can pick the most appropriate folder based on when I think I will need to refer to it. With tags, I would tag it LM2014, Project Unistrut, Project Cement Penetrations, Catering, Crewing, Pending Risk Asssessments. If I needed to find all emails relating to catering for les mis, it is a simple search for +Tag:LM2014 + - outlook, only the second option lets me do that and my outlook data file would quickly be filled as I would have 5 copies of that email (and it's attachments).

3 years down the track when it comes to looking for the engineers certificate for the unistrut, I don't have to remember that it was installed for Les Mis, I just have to search for Tag:Project Unistrut or "Unistrut". I don't have to then click "search all items" and I don't have to wait for outlook to go through every folder searching.

[Michelle R. Wood]

Email, hands down. But I've taken to keeping Zimbra software open on my laptop that hooks into my hosted email, Yahoo, and Gmail accounts all at once (with integrated calendars). The great thing about Zimbra is I can even create templates for different kinds of daily email bursts. Couple that in with mailing lists, and email is the sure winner.

@Mac Calder: hang in there with Les Mis. I did the show back in Feb: it's a beast, but a really fun beast. Feel free to PM if you'd like to rant/talk the show.

[loebtmc]

email yes, but not webmail