On 8 Dec 2008, at 14:14, Fritz Meissner wrote:

> Could you give more detail on what you prefer in the Nabble UI ?

Sure :)

In my experience, Nabble:

1) first and foremost: _excels_ at finding information, quickly,  
without resorting to complex search syntax:

* probably thanks in part to thoughtful GUI (simple but powerful),  
thanks in part to Lucene etc.†

* the excellence is most noticeable in the Plone fora, which are many  
(insert number) and varied, with a broad variety of technological and  
non-technological subjects and body texts

2) remains user-friendly on the rare occasions when I progress to an  
advanced search

* the explanation <http://n2.nabble.com/help/Answer.jtp?id=31> is, at  
a glance, more complicated than the use ;)

3) is flexible for users; any topic, thread or message that's deemed  
to be in the wrong forum can be moved with ease to a more appropriate  
point, and:

* for such movements: we need not bother moderators or managers

* movement can be made by the ordinary end user, the person who made  
the post

* permalinks are our friends.

4) is flexible for managers:

* if restructuring is required, by a manager, an entire forum (or  
fora) may be moved

* fora and sub-fora may be presented in various ways (although as I  
have recently experimented with setting up fora, the defaults are more  
than adequate)

5) is consistent:

* for each message, a permalink

* the corresponding message may be viewed in the mode of your choice  
(see below), without alteration to the URL

* (compare with Google Groups, where there are myriad URLs for  
different representations of a single message)

6) excels at communicating and representing long URLs, with or without  
angle bracket enclosures

* AFAIR I have _ever_ seen a broken URL in Nabble or a Nabble-produced  
e-mail, hats off to them

7) produces e-mails (typically, the result of an optional subscription  
to a topic or forum) without wrecking the author's content:

* there's respect for non-wrapped lines, line breaks etc.

8) supports HTML and other richness — without putting you at a  
disadvantage if you prefer text/plain

* I usually prefer text/plain, YMMV

9) remains simple but effective when you wish to add an image or file  
to a message

10) RSS feeds

11) private fora <http://n2.nabble.com/Private-forums-tp2358p1126257.html 
 >

12) SEO <http://n2.nabble.com/help/Answer.jtp?id=27>

last but not least: allows me to use my browser!

In contrast:

>> I find the Gmane UI to be in _horrific_ conflict with browsing  
>> essentials.

Gmane introduces major accessibility issues to my browsing  
environment. Examples:

* command-L fails; when I wish to enter an address, I can't use my  
keyboard to reach the address bar (instead, the URL changes and I'm  
taken _away_ from where I want to be)

* arrow up fails: I can't key up to the previous message

* arrow down fails: I can't key to the next message

* command-[ fails: I can't browse back

* command-] fails: I can't browse ahead

* etc..

Their FAQ <http://gmane.org/faq.php> doesn't mention the word 'key'.

<http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg01880.html 
 > echoes my problems and <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL 
 > PROTECTED]/msg01881.html 
 > observes "more and more complaints about gmane".

----

> one message at a time

Three views:

* Classic
* List
* Threaded

— you'll see the options at the head of each topic.

In Classic view:

* we see all messages, chronologically.

In List and Threaded views:

* we see the subject lines of all messages in a thread

* we can expand/contract any one message, expand/contract any number  
of consecutive or non-consecutive messages.

In all views:

* excessive quoting is obscured by default (hurrah!), but easily  
revealed.

> Nabble server is m-u-ch slower

I never had a problem with performance.

Scheduled downtime, for maintenance, is very rare; and during such  
times an explanation is presented.

Unscheduled downtime is exceptional, in honesty I have never  
experienced it.

= Example =

<http://n2.nabble.com/Re%3A-If-core-code-is-undocumented-it%27s-broken-%28Was%3A-where-should-developer-documentation-go-%29-tp1511898p1511898.html
 
 > is exemplary of a terribly long thread that spreads over four pages  
in Classic view. It becomes more legible — and changes of subjects are  
highlighted — in Threaded view.

(Note however that plone.org have opted for embedding of Nabble fora,  
which which I associate some issues. I prefer non-embedded such as 
<http://n2.nabble.com/Nabble-Support-f1.html 
 >.)

IMHO the one major omission from Nabble is OpenID 
<http://n2.nabble.com/Nabble-as-an-OpenID-consumer-tt1492000.html 
 > but AFAIK this is not omission by design. The developers simply  
have finer things to do at the moment :)

I appreciate that Gmane is good for users who prefer news/nntp.

Kind regards
Graham

----
† <http://n2.nabble.com/more/PoweredBy.jtp>
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