Dear all,
I noticed that the classical bioc-help email was shut down completely, instead 
we have to use the new bioc support forum. I feel that we can be a little more 
cautious on this. 
First, there should be tens of hundreds of subscribed users to the email list. 
This is a extremely valuable resource, not many projects like bioc have that. 
We could be giving up such a big community base accumated these years over 
night. Whether and how long we can have that many users back to the support 
forum is a question mark.
Second, I find it very conenvenient to ask/answer questions or share info 
through emails. For users like me, the email list is stickier than a support 
forum. You may conduct a survey or compare the recent usage statistics if 
needed.
Third, many users will chose to ask questions on Biostar or Seqanswers rather 
than on the support forum. There would be no competitive advantage in terms of 
user interface or forum activity.
Fourth, we can have both the support forum and the email list running if some 
people prefer the forum. There shouldn’t be much maintenance needed to keep 
email list as all the infrastructure is there and automated already.
Just my thoughts here. Anyway, I think this is a issue closely related to the 
growth of bioc project and the whole community. We have good reasons to think 
it and discuss it. Thanks!
Weijun

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