On 08/10/2016 23:35, David Woolley wrote: > 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).
Well said. Mail lists work. They aren't broken and don't need fixing. -- Mark Rousell
_______________________________________________ Support@pidgin.im mailing list Want to unsubscribe? Use this link: https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
