On 2012-09-29 13:36, Cephas Atheos wrote: > How many of you reading this message could, say, at 6:30 tonight, fix a > configuration problem on the mailing list server, if whoever usually looks > after it got called away and was uncontactable? From where you sit right > now? What about if a hacker logs in to the list and starts spamming the
Ah yes, another benefit of NNTP. No spamming of every inbox out there. Remember, NNTP is a pull service. Any admin can delete the spam message before it ever reaches everybody's nntp client (like the case with mailing lists). > list? How long would it take to shut them down? Speaking as a person has already been moderated, and that constantly get harassed by mailing list admins because my tone is a bit offensive to their ears...... They seem to act quickly. Personally I think the mailing list is not the worse part of the Free Pascal Project. If I was you, I would rather concentrate on the website design, and improving how easily one can get to information one seeks. > Every new user would know instantly how to log in, how to search, and how to > ask questions and how to find answers, with no change that anyone has to Ah yes, another big annoyance of web forums. You have to log in first before you can post. Newsgroups that require authentication (like Embarcadero's), my NNTP client does the authentication for me automatically. As for your usability statement. Posting a newsgroup message is exactly like posting an email. Click "new message", type, click "send". I think my 4 year old can do that already. > Hey, if you like pain, go for it! But please don't expect new users to want > to go through the same arcane process. Because I can tell you, right now, > that they don't. And they aren't going to in the future, either. I appreciate what you are trying to do - making it easier for new users to the Free Pascal project. But lets also not belittle the intelligence of a programmer. I think it is safe to assume programmers have a little bit of intelligence - after all, programming requires reasoning and problem solving skills. So dumbing down everything to a level that actually insults programmers-by-trade is also a bit ridiculous. For example.. you mentioned earlier about the "oh so scary subversion, we should hide that from newbies". Well, what damn programmer - in this day and age - doesn't use version control. Everybody should be using it, it should be a standard tool in there programming toolbox. If they have never heard of it before, they should maybe think of moving into a different field of work. Disclaimer: Yes, this is my personal opinion, not the opinion of the Free Pascal project. I admit, I have zero patiences, and I hate people that think they must be spoon fed everything. Programmers should be able to think, problem solve and do research (reading documentation). Graeme. _______________________________________________ fpc-other maillist - fpc-other@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-other