Hi All! > >Do any of the public web archives of the list suit your needs? Have > >you seen them? > > It's fine for archived messages but too hard to find new messages, say > within the last 7 days. Staying current with MySQL is a lot harder with the > mailing list because you have to keep up with the mail each day. A > newsgroup is much better because you know the messages can be browsed > whenever you want. It puts the messages in a tree and makes viewing > pertinent threads a breeze, especially with an offline newsgroup reader > like Agent. You see the complete thread without getting inundated with > 60-90 messages every day. The newgroup can still be archived to the public > web archive.
These comments are applicable to the current mysql.com lists, but not to the more general mailing list vs. newsgroup contention. The fact that they aren't threaded is a function of the list-2-HTML software. Gimme MHonArc -any- day of the week. :) The fact that you can't tell what you've read there before is again a matter of no dates printed by the list-2-HTML converter. The -searchable- level of the lists is about five clicks deep into mysql.com, at the bottom of a 120k page. and everyone here wonders why the same questions are asked here over and over and over. LOL! Instead of having a small INPUT box -right- on the opening screen that just -invites- the user to USE the archives.. (I also enjoy the way search page hits have LINK colors = VLINK. Makes it sooo easy to keep track of which hits I've seen and which I haven't. :) ) The real bottom line of the topic is that mailing lists are push technology. The server -sends- them to me when they arrive. Newsgroups are pull, -I- have to keep checking to see if someone posted something. For mysqlf, for 'once in a blue moon' usage, newsgroups are fine. I turn on a subscription, post a question, hang around a week or two to see what answers come in, and unsub. For daily, intense, frequent use I -far- prefer mailing lists simply because replies 'arrive' within minutes of being posted, I don't have to 'go get them.' One factor that hasn't been mentioned is moderation. This list gets spammed a -lot- because list 'membership' isn't required and only the word filters are there. (Try a search for 'spam' and you'll get 470 hits.) But a real, global, newsgroup is just wiiiide open to the folks that have automatic scanners running and looking for 'Oh goody! A new group to spam!.' Usenet is essentially a wasteland because the ISPs don't care who does what. The only viable groups out there are moderated, and that's close to a full time job for a list with this kind of traffic. /RANT :) Have a :) day! jb -- jim barchuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
