Dmitry Kamenetsky wrote:
I have been reading this list for nearly a year now and it is very discouraging
to receive so much criticism for my first post.
The yahoo groups was merely an example to show how easy it is to get a forum
started. I also agree that yahoo appends too much spam to its forums and I am
sure there are many much much better free forums out there.
The forums that I really like are the TopCoder forums
(http://forums.topcoder.com/). I like them for these reasons:
* One can post in various sections. The sections we can have here could be:
Monte Carlo Go, Search in Go, Learning in Go, CGOS, KGS, Human Go.
* Threads are easy to find and each thread has a post count. The post count is
a good indication of how interesting that thread is. For example if there are
many threads that I haven't had time to read, then I will first read the ones
with the most post count.
* Different viewing options: flat (newest first), threaded or tree. These can
be useful for various purposes.
* Each post has a '+' and '-' associated with it. This means that if you agree
with the post then you simply press the '+' button and the plus count goes up,
similarly if you disagree you press the '-' button. This serves two purposes:
you don't have to post extra posts just to show your agreement/disagreement,
which saves space and your time; also this is a great way to make votes - those
in favour press '+', those against press '-'.
* Each post is associated with a date and time. Also it is easy to ressurect
threads that are years old.
* If you had a typo or a mistake in your post, you can easily edit it. This is
extremely useful.
* It is not necessary, but it is always nice to see who you are talking to.
* There is a very powerful message searching engine, which incorporates:
section type, date range and member name.
* You can watch threads that are of interest to you.
I hope I have given some good reasons for having a forum. Since so many people
here are against losing the list, why not the following: we keep the list, but
give members the option of using a forum? This way we can all be happy :)
The reason you are receiving so much critisism is a fundamental
missunderstanding on your part. Having a mailing list does not exclude
any of the things you mention, but rather grants exactly the freedom you
point out in your last sentence. Most of the features you mention, I
already have in my client, and the ones I do not have, I lack mainly
because I do not want them. If you want more features, the solution is
not to change the back end; it is to change your personal front end. Get
a better client. Don't enforce your preferences on everyone.
Furthermore it is a common attitude that web forums have a much lower
quality of discussion than mailing lists and newsgroup. Some of this
probably comes from the availability of and easy of setting up web
forums over mailing lists or worse, a newsgroup, so an average forum
will have less competent admins, moderators, and in the end, users. But
some of it can definitely be ascribed to some of the points you mention
in favor of forums; the ability to edit posts and the ability to simply
agree or disagree without adding any content, for instance, have an
effect on what kind of debate is held, and I do not think it is an
overall positive one.
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