> On Jan 31, 2010, at 21:35:01, Karl O. Pinc wrote: > > >> On 01/31/2010 11:13:06 AM, Eric F Crist wrote: >> >>> I do not feel the forums and mailing list need to be synchronized. >>> They are two different mediums, and should be treated as such. >>> >> I disagree. (Although this has no impact on any operational decision >> because so far as I know there's no good choice of software. >> Maybe mailman 3.0 will someday deliver.) >> >> Forms and archived mailing lists are the exact same medium. They may >> happen to have different interfaces for input and output, but the >> interfaces are in no way mutually exclusive. The end result is a >> threaded archive viewable on the web in either case. >> >> If you've software that allows input via web page and/or email >> and output via web interface and/or email is it a forum or a mailing >> list? It's both. My point being it's then really silly to have >> 2 different archives depending on whether the data went in or out via >> an email or a web page. >> >> There should be only one place to look for archived answers no >> matter how the questions are asked and answers supplied. To >> do otherwise leads to duplication of effort and difficulty in >> searching. >> > > I need to correct myself. The interface is where the userbase is split, not > the backend. I've found a supported plugin for vBulletin which allows the > mailing list and forum to act as a single repository of knowledge. It uses > mailman on the backend, and allows for posts to the forum to be sent and > properly threaded on the mailing list, and vice-versa. vBulletin also has > good RSS support, so we can pipe that into RSS with the channel bot. > > This plugin, I think, would suit the needs here perfectly. This week I'm > going to look into it further and do some testing. If you (or anyone else) > has additional input, please let me know. The only question in my mind is > how things such as polls and the like would be relayed on the mailing lists, > if at all. There are some things that would likely not make it to the list, > but we can work with those as we go. > > --- > Eric Crist > > I agree with Eric. I think we should have forums _and_ mailinglists, as there's a clear demand for both. They should just be kept in sync so that the whole content is easily searchable. The vBulletin plugin which Eric sounds like a nice solution.
-- Samuli Seppänen Community Manager OpenVPN Technologies, Inc irc freenode net: mattock
