One of the few web interfaces that seems pretty functional these days is Google's with their "Enterprise" lineup (Email, Docs, Spreadsheets, presentations, etc). They act like full-featured desktop apps and not handicapped versions. Personally, I think the current email-based setup works fine. I haven't had to browse an archive for info, but I'm sure there's a way.
Jean & Co. put in a whole lot of time bringing us support for a great piece of software, so I think they've more than "done their duty" for the community. On Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 5:15 PM Wols Lists <antli...@youngman.org.uk> wrote: > On 22/02/2023 12:39, Andrew Bernard wrote: > > My offer is open. For the main Discourse server I run, amusingly the > > majority of people use the email interface, no matter how much I > > encourage them to use the nice web interface. [It's a forum devoted to > > harpsichord.] The point is that it runs the web interface and email list > > including digests in parallel, and you can initiate topics by email as > > well. > > Your "nice web interface" is my "pain in the arse". I much prefer to > work in an off-line manner, using text. I can't work off-line with a web > server. > > Most web sites (can't speak for Discourse, I've never touched it) are > stuffed full of adverts that often obscure the text I'm interested in. > Many of the websites I interact with on a regular basis (shopping, of > course) have completely broken print interfaces, so bad that one page of > interesting web text will give 20 pages of print with all of the > interesting text missing ... > > Pretty much EVERY web site I CHOOSE to interact with has its design > ethos stuck in the last century. Discourse might be similar, but I have > absolutely no desire to find out. And the last I heard of discourse (it > sounds like your setup is better) email appeared to be a second class > citizen. > > And of course, the other massive difference between web and email is > that I have to actively visit the website - I've got better things to do > with my time. Email just ends up in my (in this case) lilypond-box for > me to scan as and when I have nothing better to do :-) > > This is only my opinion - other people are free to disagree. There's no > right or wrong, only a whole bunch of lost people who for one reason or > another are unwilling/unable to make the transition. I've had a list > move underneath me - I didn't move with it ... > > Cheers, > Wol > > -- *Jeff Kopmanis* Medium: https://kopmanis.medium.com GLAAC: https://www.glaac.org/ University Lowbrow Astronomers: http://umich.edu/~lowbrows Orange Can Astronomy: https://www.facebook.com/orangecanastronomy/ ** Go Green and leave this email on the Screen! **
