Re: [Xcircuit-dev] Re: Web Site Comments

[Svenn A. B. <sv...@bj...>]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 01:11:05 -0600
Philip <sil...@us...> wrote:

> rumor has it that R. wrote:
> 
> > Dear Svenn,
> > 
> > > ... wouldn't it be feasible to get one of
> > > these web-based boards up and running for the tools that 
> > > now have their home on opencircuitdesign.com? I find
> > > mailinglists little useful and the traffic is not big 
> > > enough for a dedicated USENET group.
> 
> > > I have found many times that I wish I had the info I have 
> > > at home in my mailbox at work and the other way
> > > around. A web-based bulletin board would solve that.
> 
> Just my opinion, but I much prefer an e-mail list over web-based
> forums/boards. I have no problem with _both_ just I'd rather not be
> stuck with only the web-based methods.

I haven't paid any interest at *how* these web boards work so far as I actually never liked them until the day spam arrived at my door. Mailling lists is in my opinion *the* way to communicate between people on a development team. Most likely the information in such a list is of very short living like where is the bug, what code to check in where in CVS etc. This has normally no particular interest to the end-user.

For user support I find USENET *the* medium because of groups.google.com. I can also choose to use whatever tool I like for posting, and with programs like leafnode I can slurp articles onto my laptop and take with me and then sync my answers when I am back home.

> 
> I'm not a developer, so if that would be good for the developers -
> well so be it. 

Yeah, but it is normally a bit irritating when too much user support land in low traffic developer mail. Your heart normally beats a bit faster when somebody reports a problem on a developer list than on a user support list.

> 
> I don't have a permanent internet connection so I usually am not
> connected when I read/respond to posts. I also have a local archive
> that's searchable with tools more powerful and much faster than the
> web forums. I realize this works only for the mail I've revieved, so
> if I've not been subscribed long enough the web archive is quite
> valuable.

The only reason for using a web-board is that you have total control: Who is there and what is discussed. You can avoid a lot of spam being transferred on your mailinglist (It _is_ giving a bad reputation if your mailinglist is distributing spam, and you will quickly find that key users leave a list if spam is coming in.)

I would also love to use a wiki, but the concept is still a bit experimental with rather poor standards. They also fit best for static information like wikipedia and does not support questions and answers type of communication as well as the boards.

And there are too many top-posters ...
> 
> > > What do you think, Tim?
> 
> 
> > I think I've had it with SourceForge's mailing list.
> 
> > A few weekends ago, I went
> > through the process of removing all the spam email from the list, 
>   **snip**
> > I had wasted the entire afternoon, and several requests to SourceForge
> > didn't help, as they never told me how I can remove unwanted postings.
> 
> > So I'm open to suggestions, help, etc.  
> 
> Do you have space/bandwidth to run the list on the server that host
> your domain?

Problem with my ISP is that there is a traffic limit and then I start to pay, which is not so cool when you don't make any money with the traffic, otherwise I would be serving EDA stuff.

> 
> > I'd write more, but my 4-year-old
> > wants to play "Chutes & Ladders", so I guess that's as much work as I'm
> > going to get done on the computer this evening.
> 
> Ahh. The important part of life! *smile*

Mine is only 5 months old and the more I play with him, the earlier he gets tired and wants to sleep.

-- 
Svenn