Mr. Burton's announcement basically has revised the original intent of the HLDS mailing list as the primary means of support/communication with server admins to now be the Steam Forums. From an operational standpoint, hell that makes a lot of sense. Course anyone can argue that, but I'm just throwing that out there from Valve's POV. I think everyone would agree that the amount of subscribers to this list has increased and that can very well be attributed to the "base" server admins of the list. Meaning they are the ones that ended up putting tutorials, HOW tos, tips, tricks, remedies, mitigations, etc. out there on the webz in the first place, rather than Valve directly.
The official place for feedback by Valve makes sense to be the Steam forums. Not saying at all I like it personally or create a backlash amongst everyone. I have been listening on this list myself since just before TF2 came out and it has been a godsend. *tips hat to the base SAs* I concur with many here that a mail list is still the best way to go due mostly for two things: obscurity and flexibility (both ways). Most importantly though, if the "base" SAs remain, then in my mind, that's all I need. The Steam forums, while not the greatest solution for this type of community (i.e., moderators, confirmation of SAs, chronology of threads/posts, editing, viewing challenges, response challenges) feels like an abyss, tbh, compared to here. Yeah, I don't mean to knock it before trying it, but our forums are vBulletin. One of the main benefits of the mailing list is raw interaction and chronology. That has shear importance when it comes to troubleshooting issues that may be general (i.e., important for all SAs). I would say that the server admin community over the years has built itself. There is a core group. If Valve chooses not to reply or interact here, then that is the way it is. However, that doesn't have to change with respect to the SAs that are here….participating, which to me is the point. Each one of us has our own way of finding information, verifying it, and then communicating it. The Steam Forums is one of those places to look for reference. When Valve reports there, how many of you will bring it here….? I'd like to see someone take the lead on setting up an UNOFFICIAL mailing list….Hell, we can argue the current one already is UNOFFICIAL due to low participation by Valve here already. I'm not saying that bash Valve at all, it's just a fact regarding the participation, which is not what it once was and will discontinue completely on February 20th. I'm in for an unofficial mailing list, but I have no idea who is the right person to run that. I've seen a link or two from people, but I'd like to defer to the big dawgs – Neph, Richard, Tony,…. Regards, Carl aka [FLASH] MjrNuT Arise from Flames and Ash, Behold Immortality www.flamesandash.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto: [email protected]] On Behalf Of Matt 'mole' Ashton Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:33 AM To: 'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list' Subject: Re: [hlds] Important notice regarding the HLDS mailing lists Also, other forums have been available for posting on (srcds.com, alliedmodders) and people are still here at the mailing list instead. Moving to the steam forums won't make everything more central, it will separate it as people will make their own unofficial mailing lists and other avenues of information rather than flock to the steam forums. Like many other people have said in these responses, I don't want another forum or website to remember to read, and I suspect by getting rid of this mailing list and forcing everyone to use the forum then over time you would lose a lot of the current knowledgeable and useful responders here and just end up with more "not-so-useful" posters on the steam forums. So then server administrators have lost another good form of support and discussion. Mailing list is convenient, you always get it and have your own copy and don't have to respond if you don't want to. If you don't like a topic then you can just erase all e-mails with that subject. You can read on something that you hadn't thought of or just erase all e-mails. You also have the preview pane in your e-mail client so its easy to go through the threads at a glance. It's always "just there". With a forum you have to go out of your way, clicking back and forth between threads rather than a glance and slowly people would drop off and you'd get less of the really helpful people around. I think this list is great and should be left as-is. I only signed up just under a year ago and has since caused me to look out for more useful mailing lists in other things I do regularly. Matt ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:54:32 -0500 From: Alec Sanger <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [hlds] Important notice regarding the HLDS mailing lists To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" but these issues still do make it to the steam forums, and tons of other forums around the internet. The difference is that the individuals on this list all have a common goal - to keep their servers running smoothly and to solve any issues as soon as possible. If the forum stays how it is, it will continue to be flooded by beginner questions that can be answered with a quick google search. I do see the argument for moving it to the forums, but this little community we have has a pretty narrow scope, and that allows us to tackle issues more effectively. I also check the list from my phone. If I have to go to the forums every time I want to see the status of something, chances are I will rarely be able to visit. Thank you, Alec Sanger P: 248.941.3813 F: 313.286.8945 _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
