[plug] plug mailing list vs Forum

Clare Johnstone clare at cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Fri Jun 25 07:03:03 WST 2004


First, I would like to thank Craig Ringer and Cameron Patrick in
particular for the very interesting comments on various readers.

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 johnmorcos wrote:

> i work 80 hrs a
> week i don't have the time to waste, its hard enough to find time to
> read plug mailing list along with my other reading aswell.

In view of this I am amazed that you regard any web-based activity as
superior to even a minimal mail reader.

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 Bret Busby wrote:

> And, what do you do, with a forum, when you decide that it is
> appropriate to reply to the poster of a message, rather than to the
> forum as a whole? use email? Why not then, use email and a mailing list,
> which makes responding to either the forum or to the poster of the
> message to which the response is being made, much simpler?

Quite so, and additionally, as one who doesn't read anything web-based
unless forced, screaming, literally, to the terminal (read "OTRS Ticket#")
the joy of mailing lists, to me, is the way they have the feel of a big
conversation between friends.

This same feel exists on some Usenet newsgroups too, especially if read
with Pine rather than a newsreader. This may seem odd to you, but I am
lazy about newsreaders, and dont have to do downloads to read news.
However I should mention that in recent years the noise level on
newsgroups has risen alarmingly, and gatewaying to a newsgroup for that
reason may be counter-productive.

In spite of my web aversions http://groups.google.com is a marvellous
place to search (or just to read newsgroups) and I am surprised it is not
often mentioned.  Perhaps it is because I use that when faced with a
technical difficulty that I never bother with the plug archives.

One of the big problems I see with using the mailing list as a source of
technical information is that there is a gulf between the conversations on
the bleeding edge and the answers to newbie questions. Some how we pay
lip-service to the idea of helping newbies, but in fact just keep talking
among ourselves. And putting those conversations into a forum or whatever
will not change that problem. So this, which I just found via Groklaw
might be of interest
http://faqomatic.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/1.html

It is not a recommendation I have only briefly looked at it. But it is a
system which may separate the conversational aspects (mailing list) from
the on-line help aspects. If it is as good as it looks, it would focus on
the technical stuff, and could be done on several levels, so that people
without enormous experience could add help for others at their own stage
of learning. If we did implement it, it would be very important to
encourage more of us (even me) to contribute. If we did it well it would
take some pressure off the mailing list; would it answer some of the needs
felt by those wanting a "forum" instead?

clare




More information about the plug mailing list