On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 23:41, Andreas Saeger wrote: > a mailing list is not well suited as a medium for user support.
The functionality of mailing lists, as a support medium for software has been debated since the seventies. The original point of comparison was with usenet. The current point of comparison is with web forums. If an archive is available, then usenet and mailing lists are about equal. Likewise, if an archive is available, forums and lists are about equal. If an archive is not available, then forums provide slightly better support. In all instances, roughly a third of the questions are answered adequately within one or two posts, and roughly a quarter of all questions are never answered. >From the available data, it would appear that the optimal solution for _user_ convenience would be a mailing list that feeds both a web forum, and a usenet style newsgroup. With IRC/chat forums, a higher percentage of questions are answered adequately, but there is no history for other users to consult. jonathon -- Ethical conduct is a vice. Corrupt conduct is a virtue. Guiding principles of the legal and ethical system of Nacarima. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
