[plug] plug mailing list vs Forum

[Craig Ringer]

johnmorcos wrote:

> [W]ell, that[']s about 8 different people that have responded to this
> question, [I']d like to hear what the other plug members think.
> 
> [H]ow many members are there?

More than 250, though the vast majority of those are not very active 
posters.

> 1. [H]aving a forum and a mailing list is a waste of time. [H]ave one or
> the other.

I won't argue with you there.

> 2. [I] don't want to store all that data locally on my machine [-] what a
> waste of space and bandwidth if every user is accepting all those
> emails and storing them locally.

My PLUG mailbox is a whopping 103MB for a bit less than one year's 
posts. I wouldn't call that much storage on even a pretty old machine. 
Also, users don't _need_ to archive locally - it's nice, but web 
accessible archives do a pretty decent job.

> 3. [A] forum doesnt have to be media rich, it can very light and text
> based only.

Yep. That's only part of the problem solved though IMHO. I also think 
your bandwidth argument dies horribly when it comes to forums - you'll 
almost certainly use more bandwidth with a web-forums interface (which 
I'm assuming you mean, since you haven't clarified that) than you ever 
would reading the PLUG list, especially if people stick to rules like no 
HTML mail.

> 4. [I]f you're a mail junkie which it souds like some of you are thats
> great, -- [I] know what a good mail client is and how to configure
> the damn thing with filters etc.
> 
> [I]m not being la[z]y with not configuring a mail client to handle plug[,]
> [I] see other benefits in using a web based forum[.]

Like? ...

The archival question is IMO more than adequately covered by the web 
archives, plus the _option_ of local archival. I can look at opening up 
an anonymous IMAP archive too, if people express strong interest.

I think the bandwidth argument is backwards, and strongly in favour of a 
mailing list.

Do you have an opinion on the NNTP gateway suggestion raised by James, 
as that appears so far to be considered much more palatable option than 
web forums. You're familiat with NNTP (the protocol used by UseNet), 
yes? I for one would have no objection to one.

For that matter, it might be possible to provide a web-based interface 
to an NNTP server using components we could host. Something like 
SquirrelMail for News. There are a fair few sites that do read-only web 
gateways, and posting (with a login requirement) might not be that hard. 
Hmm. Anybody know of anything that could do this? Do _you_ (johnmorcos) 
have any comment on this option? Might you be willing to help in it's 
configuration or creation?

> [I] like using them[, obviously] some of you don't, that[']s great [-] 
 > like [I] say im happy for you. [I] want to know what the other
> 99% percent of the plug people think.

Frankly, so do I.

--
Craig Ringer