[plug] plug mailing list vs Forum

[Craig Ringer]

Steve Boak wrote:

> 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.

Even without graphics, you still can't pre-load the lot like you can 
with mail, you must wait for each page to load after you request it. 
HTML is also (naturally) heavier than plain text, further pushing up 
access times.

You also get the choice of POP (download it all locally then deal with 
it when you feel like it), IMAP (store it server-side and pick and 
choose) or webmail (like IMAP, but no local client needed, usually 
inferior UI and facilities). I dislike the idea of people being deprived 
of that choice.

> (OK for you broadband people - not so good for dialup and slow country 
> lines). And of course not available off-line.

Yep. Or even on-line-but-locally-cached (unless you /like/ wget magic).

> 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.

Heh. I think Whirlpool (and gaming forums) are major arguments _against_ 
web forums. SnR is awful, it's hard to read, etc. Then again, I have an 
existing _strong_ mail preference that affects that view.

The oooforums.org site seems to be an interesting case of forums working 
OK. I've repeatedly found genuinely useful info on them (with Google, 
the built-in search is pretty poor), which is a new experience for me 
when it comes to web forums.

I also think they're a more reasonable proposition once your alternative 
is trying to tackle mail volumes like the OO.o Users mailing list (which 
had _me_ unsubscribing because I couldn't keep up) than for a 
medium-volume list like PLUG.

--
Craig Ringer