Then how do you answer the following issues: 1) The vast majority of Jakarta users will not want to be inundated with email on a daily basis. They either wont bother to read it or will unsubscribe. This will ultimately cost us hundreds of potential developers that might have wanted to work on a part of a project but didn't know about the issue.
2) The emails are intrusive and disruptive. Its as bad as getting advertising. You care for a while but then after a couple days of deleting conversations not relevant to you. Subsequently you stop answering questions and then you just unsubscribe. This means other users don't have the benefit of your expertise. 3) The lack of a complex search engine makes looking for information a hit and miss gesture at best. The archive search engines just aren't sufficient. 4) Mailing lists exclude non-developer casual users of the software from being able t ask questions. If they do subscribe to one, especially for a popular product, they get blasted with hundreds of emails they don't care about. After they get their specific question answered, than they unsubscribe to the list. This robs the list of other qualified people to answer questions. Say, for example, I was an advanced Ant user and subscribed t the list to ask a question about writing my own tasks. Once I'm answered, if ever, I unsubscribe to the list. Now all the knowledge in my head that I could have given to another user asking a question is out of the community. On the other hand, if there was a forum, I could pick and choose what to reply and not be intrusively bothered with questions that I don't care about. All of this boils down to the best communication strategy for an online project. That would be Bugzilla + forum software. -- Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Mitchell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Jakarta General List'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 6:02 PM Subject: RE: Forum Software. > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Henri Yandell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 11:41 AM > > To: Jakarta General List > > Subject: Re: Forum Software. > > > > > > > > So the suggestion is: > > > > All Users lists become forums. > > Developer lists stay. > > > > I will fight to my dying breath to make sure this DOESN'T happen (with > what little persuation I can muster). I have come to rely deeply on > these lists. > > I spend my offline hours (daily commute, boring meetings, vacations, > etc) going over the list discussions. I have accumulated a large amount > of data that I transform into documentation just from this single source > of knowledge transfer. > > PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!!!! > > > > > Only problem I see there is that Developers won't check the > > forums as much > > as they should, unless the Users forum has a mail list interface. > > > > > > Hen > > > > On Wed, 22 Jan 2003, Robert Simmons wrote: > > > > > Well, once again I would like to bring up the concept of forum > > > software for Jakarta. The reason I am bringing it up again is that > > > mailing lists are intrusive and spammy. Daily I get flooded > > with a ton > > > of email that I have absolutely no interest in reading. However if I > > > unsubscribe to the lists than when there is something that I would > > > like to know about or answer, I will miss it. In addition, if I > > > unsubscribe I'm not able to post my own issues. With a mailing list, > > > the communication mechanism is just too intrusive. On a forum I can > > > pick and choose what I want to read and reply to. > > > > > > As for them being used, its a simple matter of retiring > > mailing lists > > > for forum software. > > > > > > When we consider that at least 90% of Jakarta users are not Jakarta > > > developers but will often have a question or an important insight, > > > than the folly of communicating only in mailing lists becomes clear. > > > > > > -- Robert Simmons > > > > -- > James Mitchell > Software Engineer/Struts Evangelist > http://www.open-tools.org/ > > "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who > cannot read them." > - Mark Twain (1835-1910) > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
