On 21/05/2004, at 12:36 PM, jneen wrote:
my five cents worth
I would prefer to see a more typical thread based web forum where I just sign in and can read at my leisure. Any posts made by me should list my login name and I think that only member's should be able to post. I also find the number of emails I am getting harder to digest and would prefer a thread based approach so that I can see all replies on a given topic in one hit.
Get a better email client -- threading of emails based on the subject and other headers has been possible in email programs as far back as my very first email in about '96 or '97 I guess.
Seriously, threading in email is pretty standard stuff.
1. Set up a new folder / mail box for all the WSG email.
2. Set-up a filter/rule to make sure all email with the subject [WSG] get pushed into your new folder
3. When viewing the WSG folder, make sure you're viewing the emails in a threaded view.
If your email program doesn't support threading, get one that does! Judging by your headers, you're using Thunderbird, so all should okay there.
Want to be even more productive?
4. Flag the threads you're interested in so it's easy for you to scan for topics of interest.
5. Set up your mail client to only show threads with new messages, so that the WSG folder is a lot less cluttered.
Now you have a system which is FAR more productive than a clunky forum could ever be. You can download all messages for viewing offline (on the train in the morning?), you can do a full text search via your mail client (again, offline), you can have instant and reliable private messages, and you can keep track of all your post all via a very fast email client, rather than a slow web based forum.
If you want a forum, then why did you join a mailing list? There are plenty of such forums already in existence on the web -- we certainly don't need another one here.
Email is fast, clean, free from bloat, and allows me to quickly keep on eye on the mailing list whilst working -- a lot harder to do with a web-based forum.
--- Justin French http://indent.com.au
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