Under the "What's Happening" section, I recommend that it should also be noted:
One of the main reasons for email mailing lists to forum change is to give greater "control" to OpenSRS on discussions. Two major changes: 1. Forums allow OSRS staff to lock certain threads that get too long or off topic (Whether or not we as a whole are interested in the discussion) 2. Forums allow OSRS staff to delete certain posts (especially ones where someone is politically denouncing OSRS or its staff members like what happened to Ross on Jan 16th), etc. -- Until now, I've always felt that OpenSRS has done a great job of being "open" - kind of upfront, and not afraid to allow its members to spawn lively debate in public about current procedures and other issues. I worry with an enhanced control like forums - that censorship will happen and when it does, there will be no way for resellers to know about it. For instance, a message like this has gone out to everyone via the mailing list now, and OpenSRS won't have any recourse "after the fact". But if it was a forum, they could delete my post, and contact me directly via phone and say "Sir, please don't talk about this or that -- we have deleted your forum posting as a result." They could then flag my account to be moderated, and any future posts from me personally would be lagged to go through an approval stage before being posted to the forum. I've seen this happen on other forums before.. While we still talk openly, a thread about this new "control" should be debated. I want to make it clear, that I do not accuse anyone of anything. I just foresee a temptation for this to be used the wrong way over the long run. -----Original Message----- Tucows is migrating from the use of mailing lists to a web/NNTP-based discussion system. This posting explains what's happening, when it will happen and how to switch from using the mailing lists to using our discussion forums. Contents ======== 1. What's Happening 2. When Will This Happen? 3. What You Need to Do 4. The Forums 5. How to Access the Discussion Forums Using Your Web Browser 6. How to Access the Discussion Forums Using an NNTP Newsreader 7. We Want Your Feedback 1. What's Happening =================== We are planning to migrate our mailing lists (discuss-list, dev-list and bizops-list) over to our discussion system. The reasons for this migration are: - It reduces the risk of spam and viruses to both our servers and your inbox. - It makes it easier to follow the "thread" of a discussion topic. You will be able to read and post messages to the forums either through your web browser or an NNTP newsreader (such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird). The discussion forums have already been enabled; we ask that you use them instead of the mailing lists.
