[plug] plug mailing list vs Forum

[Steve Boak]

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:22 pm, johnmorcos wrote:
[...]
> well thats about 8 different people that have responded to this
> question, id like to hear what the other plug members think.
>
> how many members are there?

OK - someone earlier mentioned around 300 members, so here's my 0.3333% 
worth...

I like the current format.I prefer the minimal traffic of text-based mail, I 
can browse messages offline, and it is much more efficient on the end of a 
country phone line. I use KMail, filter all plug messages into an appropriate 
folder, and toss messages older than one month. That means I have around 1000 
messages in my plug folder on average, which is fine for searching on my 
super-quiet fanless Via 500 Mhz machine.

BTW, that's KMail version 1.6.2 on Debian, and it's been rock solid so far 
(fingers crossed :-) My only gripe is that you can't yet set an IMAP folder 
as the destination for a filter. 'Coming Soon' they say. So for now I'm using 
a local pop server, but it works well.

In my opinion, Web based forums are usually made to look nice, but the 
graphics tend to push up the bandwidth required to view them in an acceptable 
time.  (OK for you broadband people - not so good for dialup and slow country 
lines). And of course not available off-line.

The only forum I use occasionally is whirlpool, but usually on the end of 
google searches or when I am bored, and so far I haven't contributed there so 
I can't comment on how easy or hard that side of it is.

Steve

-- 
"Most men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves
up and continue on as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill