On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 05:35:15PM +0200, Iserv-appbox wrote: > Hi Chris, > > I agree with you that mailing lists are probably the best platform for > discussion at the moment. > May be mailing lists are a bit old-fashioned, but IMHO they have some > benefits over forums: > > - Mailing lists invite the user more into thorough discussion > - The user is less distracted by the Bells and Whistles of the forum site > - Mailing lists invite less into short (negative, inproductive) comments. > (May be it's too easy to press on the commment button in a forum.) > > However mailing lists (as well as forums) have one weak point: They are > volatile. > Usefull tips, workarounds, etc. are "lost" in the archives: >
I would like to point out something about my forums volatility. I keep a daily dump of the entire forum's data daily. I take home a daily copy and have the forum software on my laptop and two desktops. If I see a topic that interests me, but I am busy, I can read it later at my convenience and see the whole topic. I actually have no internet at home, so this is great for me. I guess I should provide a copy with the users passwords cleared out and a local copy of the particular version of the forum software I am using. This would only require a webserver and PostgeSQL. If anyone is interested in this, just let me know. > - You will have to search through the archives to get an item > - Items can't be improved or extended > > As a solution I would suggest a wiki. > A LSMB wiki would enable cooperation regarding to LSMB documentation. > > The LSMB Wiki could be a gathering place for all kinds of documentation: > the Book, Howtos, Tips, etc. > The great Book project of Erik Huelsmann could be a nice starting point. > > Kind regards, > > Marjan Waldorp, > Tux4u.nl > > ========================================= > On 2013-07-19 15:46, Chris Travers wrote: > > Hi Mikkel; > > > > Thanks for your comments and offer for help. The forums are actually run > > by a contributor named > > Chris Bennett who I am CCing for your convenience. The two of you might be > > able to talk about how > > best to manage things. Even if you don't move to Discourse, perhaps a good > > first step would be look > > at how to market the forums to attract new users. I would be happy to > > collaborate on such. > > > > I do agree that some users will prefer some mailing lists and some will > > prefer forums. I think > > there are a lot of reasons however why forums don't get the traction one > > might expect. In a lot of > > cases, collaboration feels more natural on an email list than a forum. So > > I don't see forums ever > > replacing email lists for core collaboration. What they can do is provide > > help for new markets we > > are not serving well, and as such they provide an opportunity for folks > > such as Chris and yourself > > to try to expand our community offerings and build presence in the > > community generally. > > > > If the forums are targetting new users, this really is an opportunity for > > consultants and would-be > > consultants to push them and thus improve their own presence in the > > community. I don't really see > > us moving core functions off email lists any time soon. I don't think this > > should stop you, though > > and if it is successful enough I could see gradual integration into more > > things in which we do, and > > such would certainly bring more visibility to those involved. > > > > Best Wishes, > > Chris Travers > > > > > > On Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 4:40 AM, Mikkel Høgh <mik...@hoegh.org > > <mailto:mik...@hoegh.org>> wrote: > > > > Hi LedgerSMB people, > > > > I'm mostly a lurker here, but I'd like to see LedgerSMB get more > > traction. > > > > I think one of the great barriers to building a larger community is the > > tools currently in use. > > > > The main channel of communication is the mailing lists. However, > > mailing lists are a bit > > usability challenged. It's hard to keep track of what's going on, and > > harder still to chime in. > > It depends a lot on the user being able to configure filters in his > > e-mail client, enable > > treading, etc. > > > > In addition to that, there are the forums at > > http://forums.ledgersmb.org/ which seem to be used > > very sparingly. > > > > In short, I'd like to suggest replacing both with Discourse: > > http://www.discourse.org/ > > > > A few salient points: > > > > 1. It's much more friendly to new users (single click login, helpful > > tips when posting, etc.) > > 2. It can be used much like a mailing list (subscription, replying via > > e-mail) > > 3. It can be configured to send out digests to users who have not been > > logged in for a while, > > giving them a quick overview of what happened since they checked the > > last time. > > 4. Much better handling of images, code samples, and multimedia. Makes > > it much easier to support > > users. > > 5. It has a great search, and it is very search engine friendly, making > > it much easier to find > > earlier answers. > > 6. A healthy open source project with a large community. Widely (and > > successfully) deployed. > > Take a gander at http://discuss.howtogeek.com/ > > http://meta.discourse.org/ or > > > > http://meta.discourse.org/t/please-visit-our-discourse-forum-directory/3102 > > for examples of > > existing communities. > > > > I could go on, I think Discourse is one of the most interesting open > > source projects and an > > awesome tool for building communities. If you want to know more, check > > out > > http://www.discourse.org/about/ or Jeff Atwood's keynote from ForumCon: > > http://blog.discourse.org/2013/06/forums-are-dead-long-live-forums/ > > > > For the practical side, I'm willing to handle hosting, sysadmin'ing, > > etc, as well as conversion > > of the existing forums. > > > > -- > > Kind regards, > > > > Mikkel Høgh <mik...@hoegh.org <mailto:mik...@hoegh.org>> > > > > -- > > Best Wishes, > > Chris Travers As far as the rest of this topic, what I am seeing is that everyone wants everything. I sure don't want to lose the mailing list. I use a text only mail app, mutt. I access my mail directly with ssh. Very happy. No need to start X if I am in a rush. I also keep accessible a tar.gz file with my whole mail folder. I can download it and read at home. As far as the forum goes, it's there. I have to do essentially no maintenance. Use it if you want. Or don't. Want a new topic board, just let me know. I also get some questions through the contact form and answer them as best as I can and always suggest they get a subscription to a mailing list also. I use OpenBSD, so I share that same mindset :) "Shut up and send a diff!" If you believe that one of these other methods is a good idea, then you should go do it and see if anyone likes it and wants to use it. We all have different preferences. Offer someone a refreshing beverage and one person will say milk, another will ask for hot chocolate and the third will ask for whiskey! I did not get a very positive response to the forum idea originally. But I wanted it, so I did it. Enjoy using LSMB! It's free, you don't have to pay for tech support and you can change and customize to your hearts content. Heck, you could even send a diff! Chris Bennett ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Ledger-smb-users mailing list Ledger-smb-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-smb-users
