> This made me think -- instead of the mailing list versus > forum approach, is there a THIRD approach that might be > better still? Surely there's some other option out there for > sharing knowledge conversationally other than email and forums...?
Yes, let's reinvent the wheel. As much as uber hackers and sysadms love email distribution lists, there is no doubt that most j6p's are far more comfortable going to a web based product forum and doing a simple search for information or posting about a problem. As others have indicated, the average user does not WANT to receive an email about every single thing going on with the product, they want to poke by a forum ever few days or weeks and get a quick feel for what is "going on" by viewing the top threads or leisurely poking through the stuff that interests them, WITHOUT having to read or delete every single message. Whether they intend to or not, Slim Devices is throwing business at their competitors by failing to offer an easy to use forum for both searching AND posting for info on their products. 1> I can buy a Soundbridge at Best Buy, they have them right there on display in the networking aisle. 2> Roku has a vbulletin style forum that is extremely simple to use. I'm no fan of Roku by any stretch (I really like Slim's products and respect Sean and crew immensely), but if history has taught us anything it's that the stronger product often loses out by poor market position, poor support strategy, etc. In developing their support strategy Slim needs to appeal to the lowest common denominator. For those who want to continue waxing melancholic on the email distribution list, that should still be an option. That's just .05 of input from someone who has been using the internet since the 1980's. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
