I am going to top post as I don't think there is much point in going through your response point by point.
For the record I don't really care if this happens or not, I won't use it. At the same time I want to put some effort into making sure if it does go ahead it is done in a way which is useful for the community, doesn't fragment things and minimises the effort involved in supporting it. Lets review what is being proposed. Brad? (Bronze?) has offered to setup and host a forum. The forum will interface with the mailing list/s - I would suggest this list, ubuntu users, kubuntu users and maybe one or 2 other _user_ lists. Developer lists should not be added to the forum. Anything from the lists ends up on the forum and vise versa. It is just like gmane or google groups - except that FUDForum or some other FOSS platform will be used, so it is actually better than the 2 proprietary web applications you have proposed. I have never suggested using vBulletin - or any other proprietary platform. We keep all the benefits of the current setup _and_ we _add_ another interface to the lists, which lowers the barrier to entry for people who are new the free software world. Given the above I am at a loss as to why you are so hostile to this proposal. I have used this type of setup in the past and found it be the most successful way to run a "forum". No one is suggesting you have to change any thing or do any thing differently to how you do it now. I would suggest Brad and anyone else who wants to set this thing up should do it and we can see how it goes. If it doesn't work out, so be it, it isn't like it is days of work involved in setting it up. Cheers Dave On Mon, 2009-10-19 at 17:33 +1100, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote: > 2009/10/19 Dave Hall <dave.h...@skwashd.com>: > > On Sun, 2009-10-18 at 19:29 +1100, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote: > >> 2009/10/18 Dave Hall <dave.h...@skwashd.com>: > >> > On Sun, 2009-10-18 at 17:35 +1100, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote: > >> >> > >> > That is why I proposed the compromise plan - use a forum with a mail > >> > interface and link it to the relevant lists. It would also allow us to > >> > make more lists available to Australia ubuntu users. FUDForum is > >> > capable of doing this. > >> > >> But we already have a compromise plan: a list with multiple forum > >> interfaces. > >> > >> That gives us: > >> * an e-mail list, professionally and reliably administered by > >> Canonical (lists.ubuntu.com) > >> * forum-like interfaces through Google, Gmane, etc. > >> * a centralised and reliable store of message archives > >> * other archives around the Internet > > > > All of this remains > > > >> * no burden of administration on any community member > > > > Someone has offered to admin it. > > "Someone" > > Do we have certainty that this service will continue for the long > term? Will it have the same level of reliability and performance as > using Canonical's servers? > > Can we trust a proprietary service? At least with Canonical there is a > degree of trust. > > >> Another key question is who will own the posts. I don't want my posts > >> to be owned by some unknown entity. I can post to lists.ubuntu.com > >> with some assurance that they'll do the right thing with regards to > >> rights. Even if they don't, my messages are still mirrored around the > >> Web. > > > > As it interfaces with the lists, it will be the same as now. > > I still don't see how turning everything upside down will bring any > benefit. We already have a system that is tried and proven, and there > are multiple capable Web interfaces to use. Would it make you feel > better if I called Google Groups or Gmane a "forum"? > > If you're so wedded to vBulletin, there's always ubuntuforums.org. Why > have another? > > Based on experience, I can say that this is not something that > Ubuntu-Au should be doing. It's a lot of work for no gain. > > -- > Bring choice back to your computer. > http://www.linux.org.au/linux > -- ubuntu-au mailing list ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
