On Wed, 22 Jan 2003, Robert Simmons wrote:
> Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 18:52:12 +0100 > From: Robert Simmons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: Jakarta General List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Jakarta General List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Forum Software. > > 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. > If users can't be bothered to figure out how to use folders and filter rules, they are perfectly free to use the various mail archive sites to search through the messages for previously posted information. An alternative to folders+filters for folks who have crippled mail readers is to subscribe in digest mode instead - that way you only get one message per day per list. A third alternative, as others have pointed out, is to use sites that mirror the mailing lists as newsgroups. > 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. > Forums are totally useless to me, becuase it forces me to go *ask* to participate. Mailing lists get fed to my machine (nicely filtered into a folder for each list, with the default sort sequence set to threading) in the background, and I can go scan a few messages from interesting lists whenever I feel like it. No mailing list message is *ever* sitting in my INBOX, so they don't bother my normal flow. To say nothing of the fact that, since I operate quite often from a laptop, I can read and answer mailing list messages when I'm offline and then send them later when I reconnect. > 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. > Search engines for forums can't do any better when the keywords you are looking for are not present in the underlying messages. > 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. > I've been a heavy participant in STRUTS-USER (2616 subscribers) and TOMCAT-USER (2410 subscribers), the two largest user lists at Jakarta, for many years, and have not had your experience. Proper configuration of your mail reader can give you the organization and sorting capabilities that you like about forum based software, without eliminating the advantages for people like me. > All of this boils down to the best communication strategy for an online > project. That would be Bugzilla + forum software. > Well, the mailing list volume would certainly go down by the number of questions *I* would not be answering any more if the user lists switched to forums. > -- Robert > Craig McClanahan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
