2010/9/17 Karsten Wade - [email protected]: > On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 03:19:47PM -0700, NeoPhyte_Rep wrote: >> What, in your opinion, is the advantage of Forums over the Mailing List? > > It's not really advantage over, they serve different purposes. > > Forums are very nice for: > > * Drive-by question/answer - you can ask a question or answer one > with minimal commitment (subscribing to a mailing list can be an > unknown commitment of time.)
Many of the forums I've seen require registration before posting (anti-SPAM?). That's equivalent to a mailing list subscription in many ways. On a mailing list, a response to a question involves the respondent in further emails that encourage a further refinement of the solution. > * A forum is more like "subscribe to one topic" where a list is > "subscribe to all topics and mentally filter." It is possible to start multiple mailing lists once topic areas surface from the normal interaction of the community. For example, a developers' list and a users' list are not uncommon. > * A forum is a lower barrier to entry for a target audience (students > and educators using the textbook in a classroom) that is not already > invested in FOSS mailing lists. But, you're trying to teach them "The Open Source Way". Some of the most important projects (the kernel?) are only accessible through mailing lists. If they haven't used one because it's so hard, has your instruction been adequate? Steeling them to making the effort to join a project might be advantageous also. I have tried to work this issue from the other angle, that is, get the project veterans to recognize the height of barriers they are personally past. So, I concur there is a challenge that could be lessened. > * Forums are nicer for web search, which is important for a community > help location. I would suggest you carefully select the forum software so you can support this claim. By the way, I've learned how to use google's domain restriction in the advanced search page to solve this problem. One day soon, I'll have memorized the syntax to include it in the basic search form. Perhaps we need to implement this as part of the mailing list archive front page. I think that would even the playing field on that issue. And, once again, I think this is a skill that ought to be included in an open source orientation class. > * Forums allow admins/moderators to control threads more tightly - > move them, combine them, hide them, block them. A mailing is all or > nothing, and you can't selectively block someone from contributing > to a specific thread -- all or nothing. I thought the Open Source community understood that automation provided little benefit when it came to "controlling" participants. I thought careful, social engineering skills applied by veteran participants were considered the best solution. Again, something students would be well advised to learn, how to be a problem solver instead of a source. > For a community, mailing lists and forums work together. Individual > parts of the community might use only one or the other for their work, > but should be aware of the other and know how to engage there when > necessary. You sort of acknowledge what I've seen in the past with that last statement _______________________________________________ tos mailing list [email protected] http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
