Hi Mark, A few thoughts on your reply
"If you're going to receive email whenever someone makes a contribution anyway, isn't it better to receive the text of their contribution in the email message instead of a forum URL?" No you still have to download stuff you don't want, and such mails only come if you ask for them for a particular thread. "or you could just tell your mail client to "Sort by thread" and end up with a result which also matches the description you've posted above." Agreed but I still would download a stack of mails I am not interested in, and even though I use filtering to keep them out of my inbox they still have to be deleted. "... problems which, it must be noted, are not considered outlandish, unexpected or unduly severe by the Wikipedia editorial team. i.e., they cope. It's not that hard." In the last few months they are regarded in the industry as not coping well at all, with some very unpleasant edits nearly causing legal action in the US-if its not that hard perhaps you could sort it out for them? They have had to lock some areas as they simply could not cope with the abuse.For examples see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/17/jimmy_wales_wikipedia/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/16/wikipedia_britannica_science_compari son/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/ This is just a very small proportion of these problems a search will bring up thousands. "But forums have no spam control, their user-interfaces are usually total crap" Yes ones that do not require registration do have problems, and yes if aus-soaring archive is the interface you refer to I agree it is crap! However the forums I use have a very attractive interface, try www.abxzone.com for example. Proper security for registration is required or any forum will be useless. David Lawley Computer Manager Elizabeth Park PS Elizabeth East PS Pennington PS -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Newton Sent: Monday, 30 January 2006 8:59 AM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Anyone interested in creating a gliding Wiki ? David Lawley wrote: > To put it in very simple terms a wiki is an online encyclopedia where > you (The user)and any other users can add or edit pages at will. > This has caused many problems on the main wikpedia site due to > slanderous/libellous entries and edits. ... problems which, it must be noted, are not considered outlandish, unexpected or unduly severe by the Wikipedia editorial team. i.e., they cope. It's not that hard. > The threaded forum is a very good idea, far superior to a mailing list > such as this. A threaded forum is a website allows an initail post to > the forum and then replies appear under that particular thread(Or > subject) below the first entry, enabling one to only follow threads that interest you. ... or you could just tell your mail client to "Sort by thread" and end up with a result which also matches the description you've posted above. > Usually > if you find an interesting thread you can have the forum automatically > mail you if a comment is added to that thread. If you're going to receive email whenever someone makes a contribution anyway, isn't it better to receive the text of their contribution in the email message instead of a forum URL? I can't see how web forums can be more efficient than mailing lists. Both are sorted by thread; Both allow people interested to carry out a conversation. But forums have no spam control, their user-interfaces are usually total crap, every time you do something on them you need to put up with HTTP delays, and you can only use them if you have a live internet connection (so road-warriors carrying laptops can't catch-up on forum topics while they're travelling, and people paying by the hour for dialup can't download everything and read it offline). What benefits do people think web forums have which mailing lists don't have? - mark -------------------------------------------------------------------- I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED] but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton ----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 ----- _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
