wrote:
> For a while anyway, both would surely co-exist. But if such a forum
> system
> had an easy public RSS feed ... there's no reason the group of thousands
> couldnt subscribe to it ... the usage would naturally move over time to
> which ever turned out the be most used in actual practice.
First off: Moving with any kind of success it a Really Hard Task - it's
not just pushing the one-click phpBB install option at your hosting
provider's control panel.
You have to figure out if there's anything in the structure of a Yahoo
Group that keeps people who are interested in joining the conversation
from actually joining. I can't see what that would be. Then you have to
figure out if moving to a webbased message board would change things. I
can't see why. Personally, I think it's quite normal to have an 80/20 or
90/10 in groups like these, the videoblogging group is nothing special. If
people wants to join in the conversation they should just post, if they
want to be part of the conversation, but don't want to write a post then
nothing is going to help.
After that you have all the nice technical problems. Like finding a
message board system that handles threaded discussions well because
conversations on this list tends to branch out. Finding out a way to have
replies be handled as easily as in e-mail. Finding something that has the
same speed. E-mail downloads fast, I only have to download new messages
and no fluff - message boards tends to be the opposite (lots of fluff,
forcing people to load the entire thread when looking at new posts). And
you have to figure out how to handle notifications properly. A standard
feed don't cut it. You either have to set the amount of items really high
(like 100) which will be really fun for the reader and webserver or you
end up with people only getting half a conversation because they went to
bed when the hot discussion started. It's not just solved by installing
some plugin and hoping for the best.
Finally you have to convince some people to break habits and move their
conversations over. You'll have to prove that there's actual value to be
gained from moving. Don't skip to this step before you've thought hard
about the other two steps.
Like Peter said, if you want to start a forum go for it. No one owns the
topic of "general videoblog discussion". This group has had plenty of
splinter groups. Some were not so successful (e.g. videoblogging_content)
but many have been quite successful (e.g. Node101, video_vertigo,
mefeedia, blip and fireant user groups).
--
Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen
<URL: http://www.solitude.dk/ >
Commentary on media, communication, culture and technology.
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