On 09:31 Thu 02 Feb , Chris Green wrote: > On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 10:06:09AM +0100, Bert 'theBlackDragon' Geens wrote: > > Regarding the idea of a mailinglist gateway to the forum (or from the > > forum, it's just how you look at it) it has been suggested before and > > it is indeed possible, I've just not had the time to look into it, > > this semester has been excessively heavy but I should have more time > > soon so I can play with it on a testserver to see how it turns out. > > > That to my mind is the ideal solution, the best of both worlds.
Hmmm... I'm not sure I agree. Firstly I think moving to a forum would be a bad idea. Forums (IMH) encourage a style of discourse with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than mailing lists - possibly because it takes a little more effort to subscribe to and monitor a mailing list than it does to post to a forum. The barrier to entry is a little higher, and for a serious list like this one, I think that is to the good. Secondly, we're not losing anything by having two separate avenues of discussion. There are enough people that read both that anything important on one will be brought to the attention of the other. Thirdly, we _are_ going to lose out by moving to a forum, simply because some people, as has been stated will cease their participation in the event of such a move. So to that extent we have much to lose and nothing to gain. Granted, the mail gateway will reduce the scale of the problem, but I still feel we'll see more noise on a forum-ised list. Lastly, I don't agree that the interface is better per se. That's very much a judgement call, and we should remember that a lot of FVWM's userbase are Old Skool types like myself who are quite happy reading with Mutt or mailx. I personally find it much more time consuming to monitor the FvwmForum than I do to skim the mailing list each morning. I think the best of both worlds is what we have right now. Two discussions, two groups with a common subset, and a different style and tone of discourse in both. Anyway, that's my 2 hap'orth on the subject. Nick -- Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
