On 7-feb-07, at 02:20, Dmitry Kamenetsky wrote:
I have been reading this list for nearly a year now and it is very
discouraging to receive so much criticism for my first post.
Don't be discouraged please. The big-mouths don't always represent
what the majority thinks.
The yahoo groups was merely an example to show how easy it is to
get a forum started. I also agree that yahoo appends too much spam
to its forums and I am sure there are many much much better free
forums out there.
The forums that I really like are the TopCoder forums (http://
forums.topcoder.com/). I like them for these reasons:
* One can post in various sections. The sections we can have here
could be: Monte Carlo Go, Search in Go, Learning in Go, CGOS, KGS,
Human Go.
* Threads are easy to find and each thread has a post count. The
post count is a good indication of how interesting that thread is.
For example if there are many threads that I haven't had time to
read, then I will first read the ones with the most post count.
* Different viewing options: flat (newest first), threaded or tree.
These can be useful for various purposes.
* Each post has a '+' and '-' associated with it. This means that
if you agree with the post then you simply press the '+' button and
the plus count goes up, similarly if you disagree you press the '-'
button. This serves two purposes: you don't have to post extra
posts just to show your agreement/disagreement, which saves space
and your time; also this is a great way to make votes - those in
favour press '+', those against press '-'.
* Each post is associated with a date and time. Also it is easy to
ressurect threads that are years old.
* If you had a typo or a mistake in your post, you can easily edit
it. This is extremely useful.
* It is not necessary, but it is always nice to see who you are
talking to.
* There is a very powerful message searching engine, which
incorporates: section type, date range and member name.
* You can watch threads that are of interest to you.
I hope I have given some good reasons for having a forum. Since so
many people here are against losing the list, why not the
following: we keep the list, but give members the option of using a
forum? This way we can all be happy :)
I agree a forum would be a superior platform. The reasons against it
I see posted cling too much to old known ways instead of being open
to new possibilities. A typical way to respond to this is to point
out the deficiencies of one particular example and use it as an
argument not to change. People don't like change until it has
happened. The computer-Go community is just as conservative in this
respect as any other.
There's no reason why we can't have a forum that includes an option
of having all messages e-mailed to you and allow for posting through
an e-mail reply. In that sense it would act the same as the current
mailing-list for those who don't like to have any extra features.
It's just a matter of finding one that suits our needs best.
One particular feature I've come to appreciate on forums is a
'recommendation' feature. Every member can recommend a post he/she
likes in particular. When short in time one can select to read the
messages with a lot of recommendations only. This is similar to the
'+' and '-' feature you mentioned. Threading of messages on the same
subject is a very useful feature too of course.
The number of messages posted to this list is rather limited, so a
mailing-list still works. So there's no screaming need for change.
But if someone can find a good forum to act as a host instead it
would be an improvement.
Mark
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