I have been following this thread and finally have some time to chime in. I read the comment by Greg R about how USENET was the thing "back in the day" and how topday people hit Google first and then filter through that. I agree also that a person searching for an answer to a problem just wants the answer to their problem. I feel that all types of communications are a good thing and each one of them has their bad side.
Online Forums -- You have to go to the forum and see whats there if it doesn't have a feature to ping you when something new comes up. -- May require some type of login or joining to get the full effect. -- may not allow anonymous connections -- May not have an RSS feed Mailing Lists -- May not have a digest mode -- May not have an archive -- You will get SPAM from non moderated lists. -- You will get SPAM from time to time no matter what is used. SPAM seems to be like Fruit flies -- Your mailbox may get filled at times -- Out of office messages are a pain -- The list may not be archived or searchable IRC -- Blocked at some places of work -- Another set of jargon you have to learn -- Wide open talking -- Can get "noisy" -- Reminds me of my CB Days As you can see each has its blemishes. I know I missed some and I didn't list good points as I see all of these as ways to communicate. I think that having all of these at your disposal is fine but the form of communication that is used by any group of people should be tailored to that groups normal way of communicating. Lately I had to learn IRC, yes learn. I have been doing this since the 80's so USENET was my early means of solving issues. IRC reminds me of my CB days and also the early BBS days when you had "Chat Rooms" on some BBS. (How do you make that plural?). I still haven't learned all of the shortcuts but I manage. As I am one of the "Greybeards" I have tried to stay with the latest forms but I do tend to like email lists better than forums. Forums have their place as long as they are used but if a user doesn't get any response from other users on that forum then they leave, and that is what I have found over the past year or more that forums may be fading out (at least the ones that I frequent). I feel that offering online forums that are searchable, have an rss mechanism, allow for email notification, are not browser specific and is not a royal pain to maintain is a good thing. That way a person searching for a solution can post the question and get on with their business and be notified when it is answered. it is a choice they can make. John J. Boris, Sr. "Remember! That light at the end of the tunnel Just might be the headlight of an oncoming train!" _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
