well, having spent some time on mailing lists like this and there are often calls for a forum because mailing lists are 'old' and forums are packed with lots of cool features. The forum gets put up and then hardly gets used cause everyone replies to the messages on the mailing list.
I'm not sure why this is, but the fact is i've never seen an instance of a mailing list switching to a forum and the forum becoming a thriving community either instead of or as well as the mailing list. Maybe it's because If a forum goes up people have to deliberately switch their habits and checking mail is something you do anyway so the mailing list is convenient. Plus there are always considerably more 'lurkers' than 'posters' on mailing lists, maybe it's something to with it, i don't know. All i'm saying is, that despite the extra features forums might offer the mailing list is simple, so people will tend to use it. There's a user-experience study there somewhere i'm sure. Don't want to sound negative but i wonder why, if a forum was a better solution, we aren't all using a forum already and we're having this conversation. my tuppence :) T On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Michael Iv <[email protected]> wrote: > Darcey and Fabrice you are right in the that the google group is pretty > convenient system to exchange questions and answers but it lacks one think > that forums may give and that is the interface which sorts and maps the > questions to relevant categories .Forum like system allows easily track > unanswered questions as well as all kind of "hot" discussions .Google groups > you can search but it is not always a convenient thing to do as the search > outputs in many cases a wide range of discussions unrelated to the what you > are looking for (just based on a keyword ). Shortly if we poll I VOTE FOR > AWAY3D FORUM ! :) > > > On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 6:47 AM, Li <[email protected]> wrote: > >> A forum can be helpful in many other ways also. Topics can be categorized >> for instance. We could have a section for Broomstick, another one for bugs, >> another one for showcase, etc. Then stuff would be easier to find and keep >> track of. Our inboxes wouldn't be bombarded by every single topic out there >> but only the ones we follow. I think it would definitely improve >> communication in the Away3D community. Downside is, of course, it would >> require management. If that is possible, I would vote for migrating to a >> forum. >> If we can specify the items to be included in the poll, I could make it up >> quickly and add it as a topic in this list. >> > > > > -- > Michael Ivanov ,Programmer > Neurotech Solutions Ltd. > Flex|Air |3D|Unity| > www.neurotechresearch.com > http://blog.alladvanced.net > Tel:054-4962254 > [email protected] > [email protected] > > -- --------------------------- Trevor Burton
