Doesn't nabble provide a forum like interface to the mailing lists? If that isn't sufficient I know gmane does.
+1 on closing/relocating the forums (as expected since I'm in the advanced crowd that dislikes forum technology) ...goes to like QGIS on all the social media... Thanks, Alex On 03/28/2012 05:30 AM, Andreas Neumann wrote: > +1 for shutting down the forums in favour of mailing lists and > stackexchange and potentially social media (if someone maintains that > stuff). > > Andreas > > On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:30:48 +0200, Anita Graser wrote: >> Hi Bernd, >> >> Thanks for your thoughts and feedback. >> >> As a QGIS forum moderator, I've had some discussions about the forums >> with some of the QGIS developers. As you might know, developers don't >> frequent the forums. The feedback I got was that they prefer the >> mailing lists and I can't blame them. Forums are a pretty outdated >> technology in my eyes. >> >> I'm also on gis.stackexchange. Their technology solves a lot of the >> issues classic forums have. You can tag questions and it's easy to >> spot which question has been answered and what the answer is. So maybe >> we could have a QGIS stackexchange site and close the forums? OSM has >> a stackexchange site for example. >> >> We could also close the forums and tell everyone to use >> gis.stackexchange instead. That would reduce maintenance necessary on >> our side. It would also increase visibility of QGIS in the eyes of >> ESRI folks if more QGIS questions pop up on stackexchange. >> >> Personally, I would welcome shutting down the forums since it would >> free me of the repetitive work of deleting dozens of spam threads >> every day. >> >> Regards, >> >> Anita >> >> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:50 AM, Bernd Vogelgesang wrote: >> >>> A.S: err ... only replied to Gary directly ... really don't know how >>> to work with mailing lists: >>> >>> Hi Gary, >>> hope my non-diplomatic style is not too embarrassing. >>> >>> Now, the mailing list here seems to be the place for the power users >>> and developers, but how do i retrieve infos from that? i already >>> store all those mails and try to do local text search in my mail >>> client, to find answers. But here, the threads are scattered over >>> several digests, and i can't see a way how to get a grip on that in >>> more structured way. >>> >>> The forum seems to be mainly used by novice users, who get answers >>> by a handful of advanced people. >>> The default forum settings are set that you won't get an email >>> notification when someone is answering, so a huge amount of threads >>> die, because the thread-initiators and participants don't get aware >>> that there is something going on. I already asked to change that, >>> but to no avail so far. >>> Then, there are only 3 really useful categories (from the users >>> point of view): >>> >>> Help on using QGIS >>> Build and Install questions >>> Share Tips, Tricks and Ideas >>> >>> Here most of the communication is done in the first. >>> It's very hard to find threads about a special problem, cause all >>> the topics are just stuffed into one big bucket and novice users >>> often lack the terminology to do successful full-text search to find >>> answers. >>> Solved problems are mostly not marked as such, so you have to do a >>> lot of reading and searching which ends up very often with no >>> results. >>> >>> Then there is this >>> wiki(http://hub.qgis.org/wiki/quantum-gis/How_do_I_do_that_in_QGIS >>> [1]), which is in a concurrence to the "Share Tips, Tricks and >>> Ideas" and it seems that there is not a lot going on too. >>> (besides, writing an article and writing an article in a wiki where >>> you need just another account are two different things and which >>> rejects a lot of people) >>> >>> What i propose is a platform with a single login, which combines all >>> those functions of the forum, mailing lists and wikis. >>> Posts of any kind should be able to be tagged with an activly >>> developed hierachical taxonomy for easier retrieval and >>> interconnection of different types of content. >>> >>> Especially the enormous modularity of QGIS with all its plugins >>> needs a better and more structured way of getting informations of >>> what this and that modules does, what which setting means, what bugs >>> people found, how they found workarounds etc. All this could be >>> accessible just by one taxonomy term with the name of the modul for >>> example, spiced up with sorting for popularity, ratings or whatever. >>> >>> >>> There should also be a group system for different audiences, >>> projects, interests, languages (not everyone is a fluent english >>> reader or writer) so people are able to pick the stuff that suits >>> them and subscribe to certain groups, taxonomy terms, projects, >>> events, working fields etc. and get notified in a structured way >>> when something of their interest had occured. >>> >>> The easier the access to already produced knowledge, the more likely >>> it will be that some people take the effort and collect the bits for >>> own articles, tutorials, working examples etc. >>> >>> I never managed to build sth that i propose myself so far, but i >>> invest quite a time investigating "better" ways to connect >>> communities and generate and preserve knowledge. >>> By doing so, i stumbled upon drupal some years ago, where i see a >>> lot of tools (nearly too many) to build sth that would provide all >>> means to develope a communication and knowledge management strategy. >>> >>> There maybe other platforms, but drupal is the only one i know >>> enough about to be sure that it could solve a lot of issues with a >>> modest investment in time and infrastructure. >>> >>> Thanks for your time >>> Bernd >>> >>> Am 27.03.2012, 20:34 Uhr, schrieb Gary Sherman : >>> >>>> >>>> On Mar 27, 2012, at 10:25 AM, Bernd Vogelgesang wrote: >>> > >>>>> There are more modern and sustainable ways for exchanging >>> knowledge and >>>>> provide user interaction than this. Just my 2 cents, do not wanna >>> >>>>> insult anyone with this.) >>>>> >>> > >>>> Such as? >>>> >>>> -gary >>>> >>>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >>>> Gary Sherman >>>> GeoApt LLC >>>> http://geoapt.com [3] >>>> Founder, Quantum GIS >>> > Chair, QGIS PSC >>>> Book: >>>> http://geospatialdesktop.com [4] >>>> "We work virtually everywhere" >>>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >>> > >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> Bernd Vogelgesang * Siedlerstrasse 2 * 91083 Baiersdorf * >>> +49-9133-825374 [5] >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Qgis-user mailing list >>> [email protected] [6] >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user [7] >> >> >> >> Links: >> ------ >> [1] http://hub.qgis.org/wiki/quantum-gis/How_do_I_do_that_in_QGIS >> [2] mailto:[email protected] >> [3] http://geoapt.com >> [4] http://geospatialdesktop.com >> [5] http://webmail.carto.net/tel:%2B49-9133-825374 >> [6] mailto:[email protected] >> [7] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user >> [8] mailto:[email protected] > _______________________________________________ Qgis-user mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
