I agree with Viktor post+1 for better forum harbour user 2009/6/14 Viktor Szakáts <[email protected]>
> Hi Phil and All, > > Newsgroups are definitely dead (my ISP never properly supported it, > so there is nothing to drop here ;). > > For me there are a few big difference between mailing lists and forums: > > - First is that mailing lists *require* a much higher level of involvement > than mailing list. What I mean, is that you *have to* subscribe first, from > that point you will start getting *all* messages (which you have to manage, > f.e. by opening a new mail account for it, setup a filter, store message, > etc). > User problems however aren't usually such permanent things in time, there > appears something, than nothing for a while. Few users will accept the > burden > of being subscribed permanently just to ask an occasional question and > receive > an answer. Note that such higher level of involvement is a good thing and > almost a requirement for *development*, that's why it works better for this > purpose. Notice: To make a forum useful and attractive to users, > *developers* are good to have occasional access to user space. But, > since this has a high "cost" with mailing lists, few of them appeared > there. > I personally wouldn't want to manage a second flow of permanent requests > in my mailbox. With forums this don't require a full time dedication, > everyone can drop by if there is free time. > > [ well, mailing lists may be setup to allow posting by non-members, > but that results in SPAM and you still have to keep tracking messages, > plus there are gmane and similar trying to resolve some of these problems, > but these are hacks and IMO all of them are alien for "normal" users. > Forums are very well-known and accepted. ] > > This point is shortly: Forum makes it much "cheaper" and easier to > get involved and participate. > > - Second: read-only access + searchability. I'm not saying forums are > the easiest medium to find information in, but for sure it's much better > structured information than a mailing list. Forums have "rooms" and > topics, and you can usually tell what's popular by looking at number > of answers and viewers, last activity. Plus you can use the built-in > search. > > This point is shortly: Better UI, better organized / presented information. > > - Third: Noise. A certain level of noise can be found in both forums and > mailing lists, here the only solution is moderation, if that starts to > block > usability. For that there are tools in the forums, there aren't in mailing > list. > [ We don't have this problem, and I'm not suggesting moderation. ] > > Of course there can be projects with other user patterns and mailing list > may even be successful, but IMO this isn't the case for Harbour. > > We also have the "missing name" problem with our existing mailing list > archive. It has been reported her a few times as a problem, but you > didn't answer to these, maybe you missed it, or is this feature > intentional? > It makes very strange to look at messages where you have no clue who > posted them. It's not even possible most of the time to tell who is asking > and who is answering. > > Brgds, > Viktor > > On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 8:25 AM, Phil Barnett<[email protected]> wrote: > >> Also, I'd like to strongly ask others about this, please give as > >> much input as you can, even if this isn't a development question. > >> There are probably ppl among us who are much better qualified > >> to help making the best decision here. > > > > Sorry, I'm a few days behind on reading my mail. > > > > I think there's very little difference between a forum, a newsgroup, a > > mailing list or any other form of interactive information exchange. > > > > If we want postings to the user forums, we need to advertise it. > > > > Like a big entry on the site that says Users, ask your questions on this > > mailing list to get help fast! > > > > You would have to promote any forum, newsgroup or mailing list to make it > > successful. > > > > It has been my experience that any of the three can be abused. Clearly, > > newsgroups are abused and that is why many ISP's are dropping the entire > > newsgroup structure. Recently, AT&T has told all of their users to find > > another way to access newsgroups, they are dropping their newsgroup > service > > forever. Seems like the handwriting is on the wall for the death of > > newsgroups in general. > > > > So, that leaves mailing lists and forums. I have no specific preference > and > > I've seen both be successful and I've seen both fail. I don't think the > > method is as important as having inertia is. Let's try pumping up the > user > > mailing list, possibly consider renaming it to something the clearly > conveys > > support. > > > > Forums have really been problematic in being compromised and used for > many > > bad things, so I tend to stay towards mailing lists. > > > > I think newsgroups are futile. > _______________________________________________ > Harbour mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.harbour-project.org/mailman/listinfo/harbour > -- Massimo Belgrano
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