--- Curtis Olson wrote: > Now that I am hosting the FlightGear web site with a commercial hosting > service, it becomes quite easy to setup online "forums" using phpBB2. > I know our development culture is built around mailing lists. I'm sure > the > FlightGear community will be decisively split between forums versus > mailing > lists if I ask people's preferences ... so I'm not expecting a consensus > here. > Is this anything that is worth exploring?
Yes. I think the user community would benefit from a forum as it is more granular and easier to browse for newbies. It would also help to foster a sense of "community" c.f. the various MS FS fora. I think this is a major benefit. As the number of FG users ramps up, the number of messages will inevitably increase, so some form of structure becomes critical. At some point we may want to move all -user discussion to the forum and close the -user list. However development is more time-specific and populated by people who can search the archives. Plus it integrates much better into peoples messaging systems. I can't see any benefit to having a development forum at all. In fact, as others have mentioned, having to search two locations would be a pain. I'd suggest that the fora topics explicitly exclude development discussions other than possible a wish-list. So, my tuppence worth: - Have a structure user forum, and possibly wind down the -user list in the future. - Leave the -devel list as-is. > Is it worth having both options available? Yes - I can't see any benefit in moving to a forum for devel. > Would end user support benefit from forums? Absolutely. With appropriate structure it would reduce the number of repeated question and new users would find it easier to browse. For example I wouldn't have to provide a link to the manual section on the I/O replay mechanism every couple of months ;) -Stuart Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
