On 10/24/2011 05:42 PM, Fletcher Dunn wrote:
What if you got an email when there was a new post? (That's what I meant by "push
notification".)
-----Original Message-----
From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com
[mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Ronny Schedel
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 5:41 PM
To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Forum vs. email list
Never ever change this to a forum. I prefer to have one place to check
important things, so I have added several mailing lists. Otherwise I had to
check every forum on the planet to get the informations, that's back to
stone age.
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
From: Fletcher Dunn
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 8:34 AM
To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list ;
hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
Subject: [hlds_linux] Forum vs. email list
I am honestly astounded by the amount of people who complain when
people ask for help on help forums or mailing lists. Not everyone
signs up and instantly reads everything, goes through all the
archives, or spends hours researching.
I'd like to use this comment as a springboard for a discussion about the
format of this list.
I hear that a few years ago the idea of migrating the email list to a forum
was kicked around. However, at the time (is this still true today?) the
users of the list didn't like the idea. it is my understanding that most
server admins prefer:
1.) Receiving push notifications.
2.) Viewing the list in their email client
#1 seems like a really compelling advantage (especially for announcements),
while #2 seems like a personal preference, and many people have the opposite
preference.
A forum has several compelling advantages:
1.) Easier to search and find answers to previously asked questions
2.) Easier to follow a thread of conversation. (I personally find any email
distribution list to become unreadable pretty much instantly, with all the
>>>>'s and broken line breaks that everybody's mail clients and put
everywhere.)
3.) Easier to modify your post if you notice a mistake or want to clarify
something, rather than making a new post.
4.) Easier to delete or move posts if they are spam, rude, inappropriate,
belong in the general TF2 SPUF forum, etc.
5.) Easier to ignore an entire thread that you are not interested in.
Could there be some sort of forum + push notification that would satisfy
what everybody wants? This list exists to serve you guys, so I'm curious
what everything thinks. I *believe* most of the guys would find a forum
format (perhaps with some push notification) more convenient.
It would be good to get some opinions about how people prefer to consume the
information on this list.
Please chime in.
Your humble servant,
- Fletch
The problem with forums vs a mailing list is the barrier to entry. If
the admin discussion occurred on SPUF, any bored SPUF user could wander
in and 'contribute' to threads. For a mailing list you must know it
exists, sign up, and then wait to get the relevant emails and converse
that way. I know its not exactly a experts-only thing. But, especially
with a gamer community that necessarily has its fair share of teenagers
and the like, keeping the list 'out of the way' definitely cuts way down
on the noise, and makes it much more possible for valve employees to
comment and get feedback that would be lost otherwise.
Another thing to consider is the method of delivery - with hlds the
emails come into a folder in our inboxes, and valve's inboxes. People,
even off the list, can be CC'd directly on relevant threads. With a
forum, everyone would need to actively go check it every day - something
they might not be inclined to otherwise do - and PMing valve employees
on the forums with "Hey look at this thread!" is not a good solution.
What really needs to be done is to modify mailman server a little bit to
register users by steam-account-that-owns-a-game so they can more easily
kick people off the list that are not contributing. Treat it like a
privilege, rather than a right, and rather aggressively remove people
who are on here to do things that arn't helpful discussion of server
moderation.
- Neph
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