It is possible to integrate mailing lists and forums... this is not a
binary choice. That way an email to the list shows up under the thread
subject in the forum and vice-versa (a post on the forum shoots out to
the list...)
I see no reason not to at least mirror these mailing list discussions on
a public forum site and let them "live" for others who may not be
reading or active now to see later and search... I think it's ridiculous
that a forum wasn't up on launch day.
This isn't rocket science - it's how you build communities and support
users.
Joseph M. Gaffney wrote:
On Friday 27 January 2006 16:02, Per Jessen wrote:
Joseph M. Gaffney wrote:
Now, in regards to the wiki forum discussion results page, I have to
comment on a few things:
"unless such a forum is bi-directionally gated to e.g. this
mailing-list, it will only cause a split in the community"
How? The primary people who would be using the forums aren't on the
mailing list now, nor will they ever.
OK, fair enough. So you're for maintaining a split community? All can
I say is then - if the existing webforum communities are working
perfectly fine, is there really a need yet another one? (YAW ... not
to be mistaken for a yawn).
Yes, the benefit to it being an additional interface for those who are on both
this lift, and would be active in the forum. I can say (and I think this is
obvious) that I would certainly remain active in both. As such, there is now
a gained advantage in a connection between the two - without having to force
extra mails down list subscribers. As I've mentioned, the volume would
increase drastically with messages most would want to blow off, and probably
put quite a few people off from being on the list. I don't much think this
is a good idea, I'd much rather see a few offer up help to act as the
interface for the commonly appearing issues, and noting them on here and
bugzilla.
The need comes into play a bit further down...
They should be two different entities, with two different purposes.
I'm listening.
The mailing list is more of a discussion about OpenSUSE, with project updates,
status, requests, comments, etc. It does not much come across as a place to
get help, despite the rare few questions asked here. The reason is, as
mentioned in other emails, these questions are more commonly asked in a
forum. So, as I see it, the mailing list remains as is, an OpenSUSE
discussion list, with the forum being a place for new users to get the
information and replies they are specifically looking for. It will also
serve as a place for those considering SUSE, but want to get a few questions
answered, like "Will XX hardware work with SUSE?".
"if there is no "moderation" or guidance, a forum wont work"
I'm sorry... this one I just don't get at all. Of course there would
be administrators & moderators... its a crucial forum element.
Just for my personal education - why is that? Most mailing lists do not
need moderation; moderation tends to evolve. Does that not happen in
webfora? I am genuinely interested in understanding this.
Generally they do not require much maintenance effort at all. Sometimes, a
few users get mildly out of hand, and a discussion needs to be closed off.
Also, if it goes OT, personal information gets posted, etc, etc - but nothing
major. Thats the reason why I mentioned also that the community can do much
of this work, and does not require a Novell employee's constant eye.
They also might only be interested in a subforum that has 5-10 posts
per day. Consider and compare the volume of this list to a few posts
in a subforum of interest,
that they can access, read, and leave at their liesure. Are you sure
an email client/mailing list is friendly by comparison?
Yep. Try comparing participating in just 10 forums with 10 different
user interfaces each on their own screen to participating in 10
mailing-lists with one user-interface on one screen.
Which is why we should have *one* forum thats an official SUSE forum, one
place to go thats the end all be all for legal issues that can be dealt with.
As a new user, wouldn't you prefer a forum you can look at here and there, or
would you want to get a barrage of emails day in and day out?
As a new user, your interest level probably isn't that high that you would
want the kind of information a list will offer.
Ok, I'm done again - sorry for all the long posts everyone :)
I like your posting above - in a way I appreciate your argument to
maintain multiple communities. If that is advantageous, given the
different user-profiles, I for one don't see any advantage is creating
an "official" opensuse forum. When the existing fora are catering to
their matching user-profiles, what good would an "official" opensuse
forum add?
Unfortunately, my good reason for an "official" forum relates to many bad
reasons. If anyone here reads up on the dev blogs, you probably have heard
about the recent qtforum issue, and many have taken a new home at
qtcentre.org, a new, trolltech sponsored site. I won't get into it, but
qtforum was purchased, apparently the same with kde-forum, and the site was
broken shortly after. It appeared to many of the moderators that the site
was purchased and disregarded, perhaps for resale or ad revenue. As a
result, they contacted TT, and QtCentre.org was started.
With the recent (as yet, not explained, to me atleast) issues with
suseforums.net, I have only one reason. As long as Novell/SUSE is around, I
know that forum will be around. It won't experience random downtime, be sold
to some unknown person(s) who doesn't really care about SUSE or even Linux in
general, etc, etc. As a user, and a member of the Linux community as a
whole, I'd greatly appreciate knowing that theres one forum out there that I
know won't suddenly disappear and become another web billboard, with popups
all over, and nothing to do with SUSE at all.
Thats why. And I'm glad atleast someone can appreciate my lengthy emails ;)
Joseph M. Gaffney
aka CuCullin
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