On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 4:23 AM Tim via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 2022-10-24 at 03:40 +1030, Tim via users wrote: > > People have tried that kind of thing, here. Suggesting support move to > > a web forum. We have hyperkitty to thank/curse for that. This list > > carries on, users maintaining its activity. The various website things > > come and go. > > My bugbear with conglomerated email lists and web forums is that while > they aim to serve both worlds, they each have different usage patterns, > which only partially overlap. But in either case, people don't write > comprehensible replies. > In my field, online forums from ESA and NASA have been vital tools for many years. NASA's original forum was specific to ocean optical remote sensing, but has now been merged with a forum that supports all of NASA's earth observation systems. I suspect one reason for the change was the need to combat SPAM and DOS attacks. The new forum requires external users to pass a CAPTCHA test for each post. It supports markdown, but you have to click on a preview button to see how your post will look. > > *Yes*, you do *need* to quote bits in replies on web forums. Five > people might reply to someone, we need some context of who you're > replying to, and what you're replying to. We can't just "look up one" > because the message above yours may not be the one that you're replying > to. *AND* its contents are usually not visible at the same time as > reading yours (many email gateway forums only show the contents of one > message at a time). > > ESA's forum allows you to select the text fragment in a post and choose "Quote" to generate a reply that quotes the selected text. It shows input and previe side-by-side, so isn't suitable for small screens, but neither is the application it supports. The NASA forum seems to have discouraged all but the most serious users, but the ESA forum has many users whose previous experience is with IOS or Android and who struggle with basic linux concepts, post screen captures of text windows, don't provide context, hijack threads, etc. In my view, the educational systems are introducing computing without any training in effective use of online communications, problem reporting, and troubleshooting. This creates problems and wasted energy for online forums that no user interface can overcome. -- George N. White III
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