Well, I can probably speak on my behalf... I won't use forums, so no help from me if traffic is diverted into forums.
Alon. On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 5:29 PM, David Sommerseth <openvpn.l...@topphemmelig.net> wrote: > -----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----- >
