-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 31/01/10 15:41, Eric F Crist wrote: > On Jan 31, 2010, at 06:59:10, Alon Bar-Lev wrote: > > [ snip ] > >> You are better use separate products for each category. > > [ snip ] > >> 5. Forums... Why not mailing list with archive? As it always had been? >> And use mailman? > > In regards to forums, not everyone wants to use a single source of > information. The mailing lists have been around for quite some time, yet IRC > has 80-100 users at any given time, and the current forum, > http://ovpnforum.com, has a number of users. If the mailing list was the > only method people wanted for support, these other options would not have a > user-base.
That's true. Even though I would not compare IRC against mailing lists and forums, as that is very different ways of communication. Mailing lists and forums are more similar in that regards. IMHO, I believe the reason for the forum to have grown is because the mailing list archives are not popping up as quickly on google searches as forums does. And that when you get a link to the mail archive on SF.net, it simply stinks when you try to read the discussion threads there. Promoting the mailing lists via gmane.org and the thread browser there is a much much better solution. Another thing, signing up for the mailing list to be able to send one mail with one message, and then getting your mail account "spammed" with other mailing list mails which you don't care about, is also a minus if you don't plan on being more active in the community. I believe you can send posts via the NNTP service on gmane.org, but for many users that's also too awkward and complicated compared to a forum (no need to figure out what this NNTP thingy is). I honestly believe that forums and mailing lists are two competitive solutions, both with pros and contras. I personally prefer mailing list, but I know others hate mailing lists ... and that's fine. But in the long run, I believe it is not clever to try to have both in parallel, unless there are some synchronisation between them. I would say an update and alive wiki would be much more beneficial to the community as another source of information than a forum. Mailing lists might also make more sense if the sending-to-list-policy changes to not requiring to subscribe to the list. But that of course will include issues with spam. Another solution is to either switch to forum only (which I personally would dislike) or to have both in parallel with synchronisation (posts in forums are sent to mailing list and vice versa). Just my 2 cents. kind regards, David Sommerseth -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAktlocgACgkQDC186MBRfrr09QCcDEppb0i2pBLNUI4jWPm5ZkLe 9+8AoKt97c8ynpcDkdS3M0UYavBL5VtN =LMho -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
