From: David D. <dav...@gm...> - 2009-04-03 16:57:54
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Is there any reason not to have a discussion forum online rather than a mailing list? Personally I find it really "old school". I mean why would you like seeing things like >> something >>> something else >> another thing >> there showing up in your email all the time, when you could go to a nice, organized forum and search it easily and search for new/unanswered posts, etc. There are even free ones that work great (phpBB, etc). Any comments? Thanks, David |
From: Bill H. <bil...@ki...> - 2009-04-03 19:22:12
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David Doria wrote: > Is there any reason not to have a discussion forum online rather than a > mailing list? Personally I find it really "old school". I mean why would > you like seeing things like > > >> something > >>> something else > >> another thing > >> there > > showing up in your email all the time, when you could go to a nice, > organized forum and search it easily and search for new/unanswered > posts, etc. There are even free ones that work great (phpBB, etc). > > Any comments? > This just came up on the libcurl mailing list.... Here is a blog entry about it: http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2007/09/10/email-wins-over-forums/ -Bill |
From: David D. <dav...@gm...> - 2009-04-03 19:28:06
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I agree with that, only if you are on 100 mailing lists though! I'd say the average user is on < 5, and then it becomes very reasonable to go scan a forum when you have time. Clearly it's an opinion thing, but if anyone agrees with me maybe there should be a vote or something? Thanks, David On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:21 PM, Bill Hoffman <bil...@ki...>wrote: > David Doria wrote: > >> Is there any reason not to have a discussion forum online rather than a >> mailing list? Personally I find it really "old school". I mean why would you >> like seeing things like >> >> >> something >> >>> something else >> >> another thing >> >> there >> >> showing up in your email all the time, when you could go to a nice, >> organized forum and search it easily and search for new/unanswered posts, >> etc. There are even free ones that work great (phpBB, etc). >> >> Any comments? >> >> > This just came up on the libcurl mailing list.... > > Here is a blog entry about it: > http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2007/09/10/email-wins-over-forums/ > > > -Bill > |
From: Miguel A. Figueroa-V. <mi...@ie...> - 2009-04-04 01:14:41
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On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:27 PM, David Doria wrote: > On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:21 PM, Bill Hoffman wrote: >> David Doria wrote: >>> >>> Is there any reason not to have a discussion forum online rather than a >>> mailing list? Personally I find it really "old school". I mean why would you >>> like seeing things like >>> >>> >> something >>> >>> something else >>> >> another thing >>> >> there >>> >>> showing up in your email all the time, when you could go to a nice, >>> organized forum and search it easily and search for new/unanswered posts, >>> etc. There are even free ones that work great (phpBB, etc). >>> >>> Any comments? >>> >> >> This just came up on the libcurl mailing list.... >> >> Here is a blog entry about it: >> http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2007/09/10/email-wins-over-forums/ >> >> >> -Bill > I agree with that, only if you are on 100 mailing lists though! I'd say the > average user is on < 5, and then it becomes very reasonable to go scan a > forum when you have time. Clearly it's an opinion thing, but if anyone > agrees with me maybe there should be a vote or something? > > Thanks, > > David Well, I have to agree with Bill and Amitha on this. I can see many people liking forums rather than e-mail, but I for one couldn't keep track of nearly as many forums than mailing lists. I know it is a matter of preference, but I find that forums are not as organized as you state. Now, from the experience and traffic that I have witnessed in the past few years in the maintainers list and the users list I would have to think that a forum would not be well attended by most of the lead developers of VXL (I may be way off, of course). Hence, you/others are always free to start a forum for the community, but it is my humble opinion that it wouldn't be successful without the active participation of most of the developers. So, that should be taken into consideration after gathering the feedback from this thread. On the other hand, what I do believe is a very valuable resource for the community is to combine the mailing list support with a community grown and well organized documentation in the wiki. Just my two cents, --Miguel |
From: Amitha P. <ami...@us...> - 2009-04-03 19:42:19
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Well, I'll chime in and say that unless something hits my mailbox (RSS feed, whatever), my participation on the list will drop dramatically. (Not that it's very high to begin with, but that's beside the point. :)) Many times, I read and respond to the mailing list when I'm *offline*. On the quoting issue: I agree that most people don't quote properly. The vxl community has been/is very lenient about this, and that's probably a good thing. My personal choice is now to avoid quoting altogether, under the assumption that most people have the complete thread in the mailbox anyway. (If not, it's on the archive.) For example, there was really no reason for both you and Bill to quote the entire message, except effort. Amitha. |
From: Miguel A. Figueroa-V. <mi...@ie...> - 2009-04-04 01:19:32
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On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Amitha Perera wrote: <snip> > On the quoting issue: I agree that most people don't quote properly. The > vxl community has been/is very lenient about this, and that's probably a > good thing. My personal choice is now to avoid quoting altogether, > under the assumption that most people have the complete thread in the > mailbox anyway. (If not, it's on the archive.) For example, there was > really no reason for both you and Bill to quote the entire message, > except effort. > > Amitha. I think appropriate to bottom post, and quote as much as necessary to follow the conversation, but not more. That is 'snip' as appropriate... Mainly because sometimes I'm not responding to everything like in this reply or simply threads get broken, so providing some context is good. And you can always scroll past what you have already read easily (gmail, even hides it automatically, which I find very convenient). But then again, the vxl community's relaxed attitude in terms of this is good IMO. --Miguel |
From: David D. <dav...@gm...> - 2009-04-04 12:54:44
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Ok, I agree, a wiki that holds the solution to questions on the mailing list sounds like a good plan/compromise. I just I started a Q&A section here: http://apps.sourceforge.net/trac/vxl/ Take a look at how I did the VGL section (clearly I have not added much of the content, just a sample) and let me know if its reasonable, and I'll convert the PDF to the wiki as a first run. Thanks, David |
From: Amitha P. <ami...@us...> - 2009-04-06 20:13:20
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Miguel A. Figueroa-Villanueva wrote: > Amitha Perera wrote: >> On the quoting issue: [...] My personal choice is now to avoid quoting altogether, >> [...] > > I think appropriate to bottom post, and quote as much as necessary to > follow the conversation, but not more. Like this? I agree. It's just that more and more people seem to be unaware of how to do this, or don't want to expend the effort to do so. I wonder how many people are aware of USENET posting etiquette any more. Mailing lists are actually a cheap imitation of newsgroups, after all... :-/ Anyway. Geroff my lawn! :-) Amitha. |