On Tue, 7 Dec 2021 17:56:38 -0500, James Platt <j...@biomantica.com> wrote:
> I notice that Discourse has a "mailing list mode" which you can set > in the preferences. I haven't had a chance to evaluate it much yet > but, what I'm hoping for is that this will allow me to use the forum > pretty much the same way as I have been using Google Groups all > along. I just realized, after catching up with some older messages > on this list, that I have been presuming, thus far, that the whole > point of Discourse was to have basically the same functionality as > Google Groups from the standpoint of managing the email list but also > have different (hopefully better) features at the server/web site > end. Are others not seeing it this way? List mode is not default > so you do have to explicitly go in and set it. With Google Groups, > list mode is default but you can turn that off and only read messages > on the server. So I'm not seeing this change as that much of a big > deal unless I'm wrong about the email end for Discourse It's a big deal if you are (or were) following multiple groups. In the last ~10 years, a lot of the old groups have abandoned NN for web forums ... some due to spam in unmoderated groups, but it seems to me mostly that the change has been driven by pandering to youngsters who won't be caught dead using a simple text based service (except, of course, for SMS which they can't live without). Where once you could monitor many groups with just a news reader OR an email client, now you need both because many mailing lists are no longer on NNTP and many newsgroups no longer support email access. And then you have to monitor a plethora of web forums to follow the groups that have gone over entirely to those platforms. So where you once had one program that handled all your news needs, now you need 2 or 3 different programs (NN reader, web browser, maybe separate email client). Keeping your own archives of interesting discussions - if you even /can/ keep archives (web forums) - has become much more difficult and time consuming, and you have to look in multiple places to find things. [Yes, I use Thunderbird for email and I know it has NNTP also ... but it can't share/sync its NN folders across multiple machines. I don't know of any program that does BOTH email and NNTP that /can/ sync everything across machines. Walking around with a USB drive is a non-starter.] Change for the sake of change is not a win. I don't mind Discourse so much because it has mailing list support, but I am bothered by the principle. YMMV, George -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/o1i1rgd569e4vr52j4nv9kfn55h002rfv2%404ax.com.
