On the forum front: Mike is correct, there is a large populous preferring forums over mailing lists. That's why there's products that actually allow both methods of interaction. Send an new topic email to the list and it becomes a new thread on the forum, reply via the forum and it gets send back to the list. Jive actually does this very well.
-----Original Message----- From: crowbar-bounces On Behalf Of Adam Spiers Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 11:45 AM To: crowbar Subject: Re: [Crowbar] New Server for Crowbar Lists Pittaro, Michael (michael_pitt...@dell.com) wrote: > On 10/10/2013 12:09 PM, Judd Maltin wrote: > > It's come to light that the current manager of the mailing list > > software is no longer available, and that the process of changing > > the list to suit our needs (and any needs that may arise) would take > > months of work. > > > I think we can manage that, I'm not concerned about logistics here. > > > I'd like to open the discussion regarding moving the list's > > server/service to a vendor more focussed on serving public-facing > > needs. > > > > Suggestions? > > > > The ones that roll of my mind are: > > > > * google groups > > * yahoo groups > > * my colo running mailman (or other) > > * any of the above with the @opencrowbar.org domain > > > > -judd > > > > In my experience, users often prefer a forum style interface over a > mailing list. If we investigate alternatives, I think we should > consider a forum as an option. > > Anyone else think forum might be preferable ? <rant mode='opinionated'> Sorry, but I can't stand forums. I don't think I've ever witnessed a forum which managed the same signal:noise ratio as a decent mailing list. IMHO their fundamental flaws include: - slow and unbelievably bloated web UIs - incompatibility with existing email clients and workflows (including preferred editors) - yet another place to have to check for messages - propensity for rich text which discourages proper inline quoting - default views are typically linear, encouraging extremely long threads with no easy to follow structure and I don't see a single advantage they offer over mailing lists which offset these downsides. It's pretty easy to demonstrate the kind of horror I'm referring to by picking the first random thread I can find via a few clicks on xdadevelopers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2382051 300 posts, supposedly on a single topic, stretched over 30 pages of pure bloat. I find it utterly mystifying how anyone can tolerate this kind of madness - if anyone can explain this and satisfy my curiosity I'd be genuinely grateful... Admittedly it's unlikely Crowbar threads would ever grow this big. But I still can't see a single good reason for switching from a mailing list. Again, if I'm missing something crucial, I'd love to hear it. </rant> _______________________________________________ Crowbar mailing list Crowbar@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/crowbar For more information: http://crowbar.github.com/ _______________________________________________ Crowbar mailing list Crowbar@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/crowbar For more information: http://crowbar.github.com/
