Sven-Hendrik Haase wrote: > Forum spam shouldn't be a problem if a board system like PHPBB3 is used > since it ships with a strong and configurable captcha. The PHPBB3 forums > I run have so far not have had any problem at all with automated bots, > unlike these mailings lists, it seems.
I must have missed something. I keep a regular eye on a number of web based forums and they've all seen a dramatic increase in spam in the last few weeks. This mailing list, on the other hand, (touch-wood) remains remarkably spam-free. > Other advantages I see compared to using mailing lists only: > 1) Improved overview since it is visually more pleasing and more > sub-categories can be used. IME sub-categories don't work terribly well, either because people post to the wrong subcategory (possibly they don't really understand the system well enough to post to the right subcategory in the first place) or because the people who can help are only browsing a few subcategories. They might work if you're dealing with a large system (such as a full-blown Linux distribution) but I don't think they'd be particularly helpful to a single application. I think forums can work if: - They are the first point of contact and always have been. OR - They are nicely integrated with a plain mailing list - I believe the Gentoo forums do something like this. An email reply automatically appears on the forum, a forum reply is automatically sent via email. In any case, you then need to manage a web-based forum, most of which have a shockingly poor security track record. > 2) It's easier to track complex topics. As others have said, this is not a problem in any half-decent mail client. Even Outlook can be configured properly, though it may take some work to do so - and automated mail filtering really isn't difficult with any modern email client. Sourceforge's search facility is truly abysmal, but gmane archives this mailing list and has a pretty effective search facility. This is mentioned on the mailing lists page on the bacula website but it's right at the bottom. Perhaps it could be moved higher up the page? -- James Cort IT Manager U4EA Technologies Ltd. -- U4EA Technologies http://www.u4eatech.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SF.Net email is Sponsored by MIX09, March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The future of the web can't happen without you. Join us at MIX09 to help pave the way to the Next Web now. Learn more and register at http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;208669438;13503038;i?http://2009.visitmix.com/ _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
