On 08/10/16 22:49, Alex Oren wrote:
Are there any compelling reasons not to use an internet forum?
Their many advantages over mailing lists include:
- Easier searching for existing solutions.
- Fine-grained control over email notifications.
- The ability to display prominent explanation of what support can be
expected.
This subject produces very polarised response whenever it comes up on
other mailing lists, but from my point of view:
- I can afford to be on a lot more mailing lists that forums (with
forums you have to go and visit each one to see if there are updates);
- mailing lists provide a consistent user interface;
- although possibly not an issue with Pidgin, forums tend to result in
fragmentation, as people tend to belong to just one forum, and forums
are often advertising funded, so their operators tend to have an
incentive to get people to use their forum, rather than any other forum
covering the subject, exacerbating that fragmentation;
- forums don't allow you to maintain an offline archive that you can
search and search tools for them are often not very effective;
- forums cannot be read offline....
Also if you are going to assume that there is one direction of progress,
shouldn't be you calling for Web RTC speech connections on the grounds
that forums are noughties technology (difficult without a paid for
contact centre, of course), but it does make the point that support
channels need to match those providing the support.
In my view, a lot of, so called, progress, is really either fashion or
driven by commercial considerations (e.g., as noted above, forums allow
advertising funding, and from the point of view of forum hosters, are
often seen purely as means of delivering advertising).
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