Wrong? It's my opinion versus yours. Neither one of us is right or wrong.
I deal with an extremely large volume of mail every day. On the order of 300 messages alone for work. I don't use forums because they require me to visit them. The comparison between e-mail vs. forum is like going to a buffet where all my food is vs. having to go to a restaurant for some take out food. I am an active participant in this list plus two other high volume lists. As much as I'd like to use a forum for some of my other interests, I can't for the following reasons: 1. I can't. My company prohibits access to forums. 2. I won't. I takes too much time for me to browse through every topic. I like to be very familiar with something. With forums I might miss some discussion because the subject is incorrect. 3. It's inefficient for me. I downloaded all my mail last night to my I pod before I left work. Listened to most of it via a TTS engine in my car on the way home and I am responding to you offline. When I get into work, this e-mail will be uploaded and sent on it's merry way. I can easily listen to about 200 messages on the way home, especially when I've got the acceleration turned to 1.5 or even 2x normal. Just because e-mail has been around since the 70's doesn't mean a forum is progress. If 60% of users don't participate, that's fine. This list is not for the normal user, it's for techies. If there is so much desire for a forum, one of the users would have created it or a wiki. I haven't seen either. And the wiki that slim devices has is not updated, most likely because people don't really have the desire to do so. It has already been stated that most of the developers now will not go to a forum. Slim devices is an open source company at the heart of their business, so please explain to me why they would use something like vbulletin? Also, how can I use a forum during the day, while at work, when such things are prevented. My employer has no issue with me participating on this list, and I am very productive at work, so it's not like I goof off all day. I just am very lucky to sit at a computer writing programs all day, so taking a break every hour or so to check out what's in my inbox is no big deal. Especially when my coworkers spend double that amount of time taking smoke breaks. It's not like I don't understand forums. I just hate the fact that forums take so much bandwidth. Each page visit requires clicks, navigation, etc. and every forum has a slightly different interface. With e-mail, every list I'm on has the same interface, plus I don't have to go visit and browse around when I want to catch up with what the latest information posted is. I know... I run an internal forum for my company. So don't tell me I'm wrong. You can tell me you don't have the same feeling. However, I can tell you that currently, there is no way to download all new posts in a forum and have it make sense in a TTS engine. That in itself would kill any efficiency I make up for on the way home or the way back into work. Slim devices doesn't need forums, it needs a more stable server. I'd rather they devote time to getting it running well, rather than have a really cool forum, only so that users can post more information about how their slimserver is crashing every day. Oh, yeah, one other thing. Thanks for insulting me by telling me what advantages I do or don't see with this format vs. others. If you like forums so much, go create one yourself and invite people from this list to it. phpBB is a very good OS one to consider. Paul >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/05/05 5:41 AM >>> Hi Paul I am sorry but you are wrong. This system is the kinda thing that was running in the late 60's/70's - things have come a long way since then. Slim devices have an excellent product that is going to grow and support forums allow other uses to share their experience leaving the staff to spend more time developing the products we all enjoy. I would expect 60% of new users will not participate with this current mailing list because it is ugly, slow and not straight forward which is why all major websites offering support, do not use mailing list support systems and have easy to use/navigate web based forums. If you cannot see the lucidly clear advantaged of using a system like vbulitin then you are clearly beyond any ability to form an intelligent opinion. Please research what a modern forum system like vbulitin is capable of. You mention it is possible to view the current posts in a forum interface already. Well if that is your idea of a forum interface no wonder you are against it - the current system is dire. I am not say this mailing list should cease, just a new system be put in place. I want to see slim devices grow and this support forum issue must be dealt with sooner or later. Regards, Mix ----Original Message Follows---- From: "PAUL WILLIAMSON" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [slim] Better forum please! Date: Sun, 03 Apr 2005 20:28:06 -0400 Look in the archives. Forums for a lot of people suck. With e-mail, I can participate in many more projects and only have to deal with one interface. Good luck, but if you put 1% of effort into looking in the archives (which are ina forum format already), you'll see this gets brought up every once in a while and slim devices is in the process of addressing it in their own FOSS way. Paul >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/03/05 7:08 PM >>> Please please can we have a better support forum? This type of mailing list forum belongs in the dark ages and makes support and communication very slow and tiring. Something like www.vbulletin.com is the way to go. SD needs to make its support as stunning as its devices. Hope you folks agree. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
