You raise very valid concerns John Sechrest. @ Zoho Discussions we had this in mind when we developed the product. Apart from the web based access, we have active bi-directional emailing too. Of course, you are welcome to give Zoho Discussions a spin and come back with comments - for I am sure your feedback will only help improve the product.
Regards Dhan Zoho Discussions On Feb 9, 10:46 pm, John Sechrest <sechr...@gmail.com> wrote: > The difference between mailing lists and forums is much more complex and > much more subtle that you are outlining here. > > I have seen several efforts to move to forums blow up discussions. In > addition, I have also seen moves like this end up translating into a > biforcation of the conversation into two different groups. > > The choice of how you view data is a critical one. And I totally agree about > the need for a tool that helps you focus your attention well. For me, google > groups + gmail does this well. > > In general, I have yet to meet a forum that I like. Web based forums hide > information and make it harder for me to find things. I find this especially > true of forum sites like NING. (pet peave) > > I do not know how zoho forums work, having never used them. > > For me, I am immediately suspicious when I see the word forum. Since forums > usually take me more time to process, take more energy to keep in context. > > I suspect it is an information processing style issue, since these are the > very issues you are trying to address. > > I would just urge caution. A shift like this from google groups to zoho > forums is likely to quietly and subtly alter who is participating, and who > stays connected to the group. > > I have watched other groups have a significant shift of membership with tool > changes like this. > > Be sure you are getting what you think you are getting. And be sure you know > which audience you are serving with the change. > > On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 7:52 AM, Alex Hillman > <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > > > So, Woody just suggested that an active thread be moved out of the main > > channel so as to not disrupt others. While I think it was a good topic to > > keep in the group's visibility, his question of "can I move this to a sub > > folder" reminded me of something. > > > Google Groups kinda sucks. > > > To be fair, it's become our home. This is the most active repository of > > information for coworking, and the place where I send people first to learn > > more and meet more coworking people. But the Google Group is anything but > > good for discovery. Spam moderation is chaos for the people who actively > > manage it. The lack of sub-threads is annoying, and the lack of message > > context makes it hard to know what messages to pay attention to. > > > Recently, the open source javascript library jQuery moved away from Google > > Groups for a lot of these same reasons...to Zoho forums. > > > I did some research and found that a Zoho forum to support our group would > > cost $75/month, and incur a one-time $500 fee to migrate all of the existing > > data (messages, threads, and even users) from Google Groups to Zoho. There's > > even an option to interact with Zoho via e-mail for those of us that like > > this. > > > The pros: > > > - Much better organization of our knowledge. The ability to set message > > "topics" to things like "question", "introduction", "idea" would be HUGE > > for > > this group. > > - Easier on-boarding for new members > > - Better spam moderation tools > > > The cons: > > > - It's not free > > - Since it's not free, somebody needs to pay for it, which means > > somebody is ultimately a "keyholder" > > > The cons aren't huge, but they do need to be addressed. > > > I think this could be a very valuable evolution of this discussion forum > > that we all love so much. What say you, the coworking group? > > > -Alex > > > /ah > > indyhall.org > > coworking in philadelphia > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Coworking" group. > > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups > > .com> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- > John Sechrest . > Corvallis Benton . > Chamber Coalition . > 420 NW 2nd . > (541) 757-1507 . sechr...@corvallisedp.com > . > > . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
