Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-20 Thread Andrew
TheVeech wrote:

 Usenet - More open than the above two, but vulnerable to the problems
 this can entail.  Again, I don't read all the posts, but I find them
 more manageable than Forums

There is another option (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) which is to 
use NNTP protocol but not part of Usenet.
I read this list via gmane over nntp. This to me means
  - I can record which messages I have read/not read
  - I can choose which newsreader I want
  - can mark (using thunderbird) which message I want to reply to later etc

My main grouses against forums is that
  - you are forced to use whatever user friendly front end the 
implementer has chosen.
  - in most ones I have come across it is hard to find which posts are 
new and which you have already seen.

And following another part of the thread
Robin Menneer wrote:

  Im happy with this list provided it stays in its present form.  Had a
  look at Gmane and don't like it.  Robin

I am happy with this list in its current form.  I happen to like gmane 
via NNTP and if pressed (i.e. not using my own machine)will use the web 
interface.  So I agree with Robin's conclusion albeit for different reasons.


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-20 Thread Chris Rowson
 I am happy with this list in its current form.  I happen to like gmane
 via NNTP and if pressed (i.e. not using my own machine)will use the web
 interface.  So I agree with Robin's conclusion albeit for different reasons.


I'll take a look at this NNTP /gname interface - sounds interesting. I
wonder if it'd be a good idea to have some kind of tutorial outlining
it - perhaps as an alternative to users who want forums.

Chris

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread Robin Menneer
On 3/19/07, Philip Wyett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On 18/03/07, Chris Rowson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  I checked out the ubuntuforums.org earlier today to see whether or not
  there was a UK LoCo section there.
 
  I was a little surprised to read that the mailing list had voted not
  to have a presence at ubuntuforums.org and I have a little difficulty
  understanding why.
 
  Surely in this day and age, forums are a viable alternative to mailing
  lists, and even preferable in some situations. I wondered if the
  decision to opt out of ubuntuforums.org was influenced by a fear of
  such a presence damaging the usage of the mailing list.
 
  Whilst I can see why this might be a slap in the face to people who
  have invested so much time into building up the mailing list, surely
  if people would prefer to communicate through the forums, it'd be a
  good idea to use them and 'grow' the community.
 
  I am - I know making the assumption that people prefer forums, but I
  think in general this assumption seems to be true. Where mailing lists
  are the mainstay of open source and linux communication I think forums
  would give the group a higher profile and encourage a far greater
  interaction with the community.
 
  Does anyone else agree or am I alone? Is there any harm in requesting
  a UK LoCo forum?
 
  Chris

 I have been asked why I do not help folks in the forums of another OSS
 project
 I develop for before and this was my general answer:

 'I can filter and manage inbound mail far easier than browsing forums and
 more
 often than not I can pick and choose what to look at higher speeds on my
 local drive
 using searches rather than in a forum where I am held back by
 server/connection speeds.
 It is also far easier to track my responses via sent mail items rather than
 trying to
 track anything on a forum.'

  Time is also a massive issue. Personally I have bill paying work, OSS work
 and what I a
 laughingly call a life away from computers (a beer or ten occasionally :-D).
 So reading so many
 messages across many support platforms just ain't feasible!

 Regards

 Phil


Phil
Im happy with this list provided it stays in its present form.  Had a
look at Gmane and don't like it.  Robin

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread Robin Menneer
On 3/19/07, Ben Thorp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  Phil
   Im happy with this list provided it stays in its present form.  Had a
   look at Gmane and don't like it.  Robin

 Another possibility (not that I've read the rest of this thread properly, so
 I'm sorry if it's already come up) is mail2forum
 (http://www.mail2forum.com/forums/index.php ) which allows
 people to interact with a list either through email or through a phpbb
 forum. (I know phpbb is not the be-all and end-all, but it just happens to
 the be the forum software in this case). Essentially it should mean that the
 current format does not change, and those who like the mailing list can
 still access it, but there is an alternative way to access it for those who
 prefer forums.

 Ben


Ben
Please, if it ain't broke, don't fix it !  Robin

  




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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread Paul Tansom
** Chris Rowson [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-18 22:52]:
 Hey there - thanks for the welcome ;-)
 
 I'd tend to agree with you. It'd be great if the mailing list stuff
 could get shunted to a forum too. I know a couple of LUG's that do
 that.
 
 I suppose it's all pretty dependent on who you want to attract to a 
 discussion.
snip
** end quote [Chris Rowson]

I'm not a particularly active poster here (yet) since I'm still sitting
incomfortably between Debian and Ubuntu and not fully comfortable
switching over (yet) - but that's a completely separate issue. I am one
of those that strongly prefers lists to forums though.

I don't specifically object to forums, but even though I have joined
several I find that I rarely if ever participate in them. I will ask a
question and it will be ages before I remember to pop back to check for
an answer. If I am looking for something on there I get very frustrated
with the time it takes to search and/or move between messages. I also
find that dropping in and out of many different web forums is more
hassle than I can be bothered with.

Basically I sign up to forums and that is often as far as it gets. On
the other side of things, I am subscribed to numerous mailing lists and
scan through them regularly and where I can help out I do so. Maybe I'm
more techy than end user, but my activity drops when forums are used.

As an example, I used to be an active team member on the list and irc of
the Smoothwall project, now they use forums I have dropped out of the
community completely (there are other factors involved such as that I
no longer use Smoothwall, but I was using it up until quite recently and
long after I stopped participating).

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread Johnathon Tinsley
 Hey there - thanks for the welcome ;-)
 
 I'd tend to agree with you. It'd be great if the mailing list stuff
 could get shunted to a forum too. I know a couple of LUG's that do
 that.
 
 I suppose it's all pretty dependent on who you want to attract to a
discussion.


Personally, I find email lists annoying. I get so many emails, status
alerts, web-design mailing list etc already, I really don't need
anymore. I prefer Forums, if just because I'm much more at home in them.
If I want to know when someone has replied, I'll use the reply
notification. It means, I only get emails on subjects I'm interested
in/can help with, whereas there is quite a lot of traffic on this list
that doesn't concern me, which has me hitting the delete key quite a
lot, even with the list in digest mode. 

A forum/list gateway would be good. I guess the real question to ask
now, is will it ever happen?

Also, some of the rules of mailing lists elude me still. Can someone
tell me what top posting is, and what I need to do?

Regards,

Kirrus
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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread Martin Fitzpatrick
This is top posting.

On 19/03/07, Johnathon Tinsley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Also, some of the rules of mailing lists elude me still. Can someone tell me
 what top posting is, and what I need to do?

Whereas this (which is what you did) isn't.

It can get a bit annoying if everyone top posts vs. replying
underneath  cutting out the quoted bits that aren't neccessary (like
how I chopped out everything from your mail that I wasn't replying
to).  Emails get larger and larger and if you receive digests you get
multiple copies of the same thing in an enormous email.  Some people
care, some people don't... like most manners :)

That's all there is to it really.

Martin

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-19 Thread ajb35
- Original Message -
From: Johnathon Tinsley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Monday, March 19, 2007 1:26 pm
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums
To: ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com

  Hey there - thanks for the welcome ;-)
  
  I'd tend to agree with you. It'd be great if the mailing list stuff
  could get shunted to a forum too. I know a couple of LUG's 
 that do
  that.
  
  I suppose it's all pretty dependent on who you want to attract 
 to a
 discussion.
 
 
 Personally, I find email lists annoying. I get so many emails, status
 alerts, web-design mailing list etc already, I really don't need
 anymore. I prefer Forums, if just because I'm much more at home 
 in them.
 If I want to know when someone has replied, I'll use the reply
 notification. It means, I only get emails on subjects I'm interested
 in/can help with, whereas there is quite a lot of traffic on 
 this list
 that doesn't concern me, which has me hitting the delete key 
 quite a
 lot, even with the list in digest mode. 
 
 A forum/list gateway would be good. I guess the real question to ask
 now, is will it ever happen?
 
 Also, some of the rules of mailing lists elude me still. Can someone
 tell me what top posting is, and what I need to do?
 
 Regards,
 
 Kirrus
 

Top posting is adding your text above the previous text when replying to an 
email. It's bad because it breaks the flow of the conversation. You're not top 
posting so you don't need to do anything :)
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[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-18 Thread Chris Rowson
I checked out the ubuntuforums.org earlier today to see whether or not
there was a UK LoCo section there.

I was a little surprised to read that the mailing list had voted not
to have a presence at ubuntuforums.org and I have a little difficulty
understanding why.

Surely in this day and age, forums are a viable alternative to mailing
lists, and even preferable in some situations. I wondered if the
decision to opt out of ubuntuforums.org was influenced by a fear of
such a presence damaging the usage of the mailing list.

Whilst I can see why this might be a slap in the face to people who
have invested so much time into building up the mailing list, surely
if people would prefer to communicate through the forums, it'd be a
good idea to use them and 'grow' the community.

I am - I know making the assumption that people prefer forums, but I
think in general this assumption seems to be true. Where mailing lists
are the mainstay of open source and linux communication I think forums
would give the group a higher profile and encourage a far greater
interaction with the community.

Does anyone else agree or am I alone? Is there any harm in requesting
a UK LoCo forum?

Chris

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-18 Thread Tony Arnold
Chris,

Chris Rowson wrote:

 I am - I know making the assumption that people prefer forums, but I
 think in general this assumption seems to be true. Where mailing lists
 are the mainstay of open source and linux communication I think forums
 would give the group a higher profile and encourage a far greater
 interaction with the community.
 
 Does anyone else agree or am I alone? Is there any harm in requesting
 a UK LoCo forum?

This issue has been discussed several times on this list. IIRC, it was
about a 50/50 split between forums and mailing lists, although not
formal vote was ever taken.

I think the answer would be to have both and a gateway between the two
so anything on the forums goes to the list and vice versa. I've no idea
about the technical feasibility/difficulty of this, but it would keep
everybody happy, IMHO.

Oh, and welcome to the list!

Regards,
Tony.
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IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
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[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-18 Thread Chris Rowson
Hey there - thanks for the welcome ;-)

I'd tend to agree with you. It'd be great if the mailing list stuff
could get shunted to a forum too. I know a couple of LUG's that do
that.

I suppose it's all pretty dependent on who you want to attract to a discussion.

After reading that you'd had this discussion a few times, I thought
about why there might be a split in opinion. Perhaps the reason for
dismissing the idea of forums, is to make discussion less accessible
to the 'average joe' - who isn't interested in pursuing communication
through a mailing list.

I guess that by making it a little more difficult to get involved in
the conversation, a lot of the 'background noise' is cut out keeping
the discussion focused and intelligent and you're more likely to make
sure what you've typed is reasonably well thought out before you send
it, when you know you can't edit it afterwards!

Chris

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-18 Thread Tony Arnold
Chris,

Chris Rowson wrote:
 Hey there - thanks for the welcome ;-)

You're welcome! Pun intended:-)

 I'd tend to agree with you. It'd be great if the mailing list stuff
 could get shunted to a forum too. I know a couple of LUG's that do
 that.
 
 I suppose it's all pretty dependent on who you want to attract to a 
 discussion.
 
 After reading that you'd had this discussion a few times, I thought
 about why there might be a split in opinion. Perhaps the reason for
 dismissing the idea of forums, is to make discussion less accessible
 to the 'average joe' - who isn't interested in pursuing communication
 through a mailing list.

Gosh, I hope this just is not true! it sounds like you think some people
want the mailing list just for the geeks and keep the noobs etc out of
it. That goes against the whole ethos of what Ubuntu and especially
Ubuntu-UK is all about.

My experience is that this list is one of the most helpful, most polite
and most patient mailing list I've eve been on. Everyone is welcome to
take part from the newbie with the innocent questions to the uber-geek
with real techie stuff.

No, I think the split in opinion was purely different strokes for
different folks. Some are more comfortable with mailing lists and some
with forums (or should that be fora?). It's just human nature.

If we can set up a forum with a mailing list gateway then that would
keep everybody happy.

Regards,
Tony.

P.S., It's good form to quote the message to which you are replying.
Another discussion that's been had on several occasions, so I suggest
top posting is avoided:-)
-- 
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IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu UK Forums

2007-03-18 Thread Philip Wyett

On 18/03/07, Chris Rowson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


I checked out the ubuntuforums.org earlier today to see whether or not
there was a UK LoCo section there.

I was a little surprised to read that the mailing list had voted not
to have a presence at ubuntuforums.org and I have a little difficulty
understanding why.

Surely in this day and age, forums are a viable alternative to mailing
lists, and even preferable in some situations. I wondered if the
decision to opt out of ubuntuforums.org was influenced by a fear of
such a presence damaging the usage of the mailing list.

Whilst I can see why this might be a slap in the face to people who
have invested so much time into building up the mailing list, surely
if people would prefer to communicate through the forums, it'd be a
good idea to use them and 'grow' the community.

I am - I know making the assumption that people prefer forums, but I
think in general this assumption seems to be true. Where mailing lists
are the mainstay of open source and linux communication I think forums
would give the group a higher profile and encourage a far greater
interaction with the community.

Does anyone else agree or am I alone? Is there any harm in requesting
a UK LoCo forum?

Chris



I have been asked why I do not help folks in the forums of another OSS
project
I develop for before and this was my general answer:

'I can filter and manage inbound mail far easier than browsing forums and
more
often than not I can pick and choose what to look at higher speeds on my
local drive
using searches rather than in a forum where I am held back by
server/connection speeds.
It is also far easier to track my responses via sent mail items rather than
trying to
track anything on a forum.'

Time is also a massive issue. Personally I have bill paying work, OSS work
and what I a
laughingly call a life away from computers (a beer or ten occasionally :-D).
So reading so many
messages across many support platforms just ain't feasible!

Regards

Phil
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