> 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.
Right, users don't want to be inundated with email. They don't have to be unless they subscribe to the lists. Even then they can have their mail client route the email to appropriate folders for future perusal. > > 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. I disagree - email need not be disruptive; just resist the urge to immediately open and read every email. > > 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. A good point here; perchance the search engine could be improved? > > 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. If there was indeed a forum, would non-developer casual users frequent it? Hard to say. > > All of this boils down to the best communication strategy for > an online > project. That would be Bugzilla + forum software. Mm, difficult to say what the "best" comms strategy is. I'm not dogmatically opposed to forums, but I feel the mailing lists work pretty well. Yours, tom -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
