On Fri Mar 13, 2020 at 11:22:46AM -0400, Richard Hipp wrote:
> On 3/13/20, Huỳnh Trần Khanh wrote:
> > [On a mailing nlist] I can
> > filter the posts, sort them, search through them, archive them,
> > forward them to a friend,
>
> You can do all of that with the SQLite Forum. Remember, all content
> is still delivered directly to your in-box, just like with a mailing
> list, so anything you can do with content received from a mailing list
> can also be done with content from the forum. But there are many
By chance or by design most emails to this list, like yours above, came
wrapped at a length suitable for text-based readers. Yet every message
I've received from the forum is a shocking cut-words-in-half affair in
my terminal. There have been several other topics raised already on
the forum about the email format. Your statements above and below imply
that the only thing list users will miss is composing, but that is a
clearly premature position to take.
> things that the forum provides that a mailing list does now. For
> example, if you want an archive of the forum activity, you can clone
> the entire history with one command:
> ..
> Then periodically "sync" to keep your private archive up-to-date. Now
> you have all historical content, neatly packaged in an SQL database.
> You can extract and search and manage the content in this archive in
> any way you want.
Not something I've ever needed or would want to dedicate disk space
towards. Web-indexable contents enables search engines do a better job
of categorizing and linking than I could do, and don't want to spend
the time doing. What is the typical use case here?
> use the web interface in order to post a message. In my experience,
> this forces people to take a little extra time to think about what
> they are saying, and to format and arrange their thoughts for clarity,
> and hence results in a better experience for the readers.
Posting too early is not something I can say I've noticed many people
doing.
> There are other important features that the forum provides that
> mailinglists typically do not:
>
> 1. You can format your postings using Markdown
Useful to those who prefer to read messages in a browser, I guess. Not
much of an advantage to those who prefer to read text. My client
doesn't seem to mangle EXPLAIN output like yours does.
> 2. You can add hyperlinks to your postings that are consistently
> displayed and are not dependent on the idiosyncrasies of various
> email clients.
I don't quite understand this one.
> 3. You can edit prior posts to fix typos or mistakes.
Fair enough.
> 4. Your email address is never displayed, even to subscribers.
That is a mailing list configuration item, not a core difference
between a list and a forum.
> 5. It is much easier to contribute anonymously to a web-based forum
> than it is to contribute on a mailing list. There is no verification
> process to go through. You just type in what you want to say and
> press "Submit".
Fair enough, if having an open mailing list comes with too many other
costs.
> 6. Moderators have much better control over spam and other malicious
> content.
Ok.
> The first point (use of Markdown) is the killer feature for me. There
> was a recent thread on this mailing list that involved people posting
> EXPLAIN output. That text gets hopelessly jumbled on most email
> readers. If those messages had been formatted with Markdown, they
> would have been much easier to read and understand.
>
> I've been using both this mailing list and the Forum on Fossil
> regularly for two years now. The forum is so much nicer that I have
> come to dread having to work with the legacy mailing list, at least
> for complex subjects. It is time for a switch to better technology.
It is your project and your time spent managing the list (for which I
and many others are grateful) so your choice to make. I do however
think your approach was a little too fast and somewhat dismissive of
the concerns of subscribers and the cost to the community.
I would estimate that more around half of the value of this mailing
list come from discussion of topics outside of SQLite, and from several
key individuals willing to share their advanced knowledge and ideas.
That we will likely lose some of them, and/or the spontaneous
discussions that the mix of beginner and advanced, is a shame, and
could have been avoided.
--
Mark Lawrence
___
sqlite-users mailing list
sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org
http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
