Re-proposal: web forums

[Tom Spear (Dustin Booker, Dustin Navea)]

Molle Bestefich wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>   
>> No seriously, I don't have the time to spend going out and monitoring a
>> dozen forums.  I find mail lists much more convenient ... the
>> information comes to me, I don't have to go to the information.
>>     
>
> I feel the same.
> I'd like to know exactly what it is that people find so convenient about forums.
> I'd also like to know why the wine list archives can't provide the
> same convenience.
>
> Two things come to mind:
>
>  * Ability to apply a 'star' rating to topics (called "sticky"?) that
> are enlightened and/or of general interest.  (I think that designated
> forum administrators perform this task.)
>
> * Ability to post under a pseudonym (without going through the trouble
> of finding a free e-mail provider, creating an account, figuring out
> how their web interface works, etc.)
>
> * ... What else?

You can't reply to the archives.. you still have to sign up for the 
mailing list.  I don't like having my inbox flooded with emails from the 
devel and bugs lists.  If I go to a forum, I see a topic once and read 
all of the posts to that topic if I want to, whereas I have to delete 
every email I dont want/need to read and then delete it from the trash 
(or shift+del to avoid the trash)..  I'd prefer the forums because I can 
turn off email notifications and then if my email changes, I just change 
it in 1 place instead of 2 or more like with the lists, and if I cant 
check my email for several days, I dont have to sort thru 700 emails, I 
just read thru the forum posts.

It's a lot more convenient..

Now sure I like having the emails sent to my inbox, and just leave 
Thunderbird open, but sometimes I wish I could just browse for it.

Tom

P.S. It's easier to link to a forum post in the wiki than to a ML 
thread, because you have to click several extra links to find the thread 
and/or individual post in the ML archives, whereas you can search for 
the post and get a relatively small list of threads on a forum.