[plug] Forum Software

[James Drysdale]

G'day,

I've only been a member here for a short while, just over a month, but I
agree with this.
For the sake of convieniently & neatly arranged topics of discussion,
there would be a lot less interaction.
This group does seem "small" enough to continue with email based
contact, and is more efficient as a base for discussion.

It's not unusual for email clients to quietly run in the background, but
keeping a forum window open, or browsing it more than twice a day on the
off-chance that a topic of mutual benefit presents itself is not
something I would necessarily do.

I haven't been here for very long, so I reckon this would be my $0.04
worth :-P

Cheers,
James.



Gavin Chester wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-07-25 at 10:15 +0800, W.Kenworthy wrote:
>   
>> The basic problem is that a forum requires the user to go there and
>> participate.  Email is more in your face and comes to you.  you can
>> then
>> stay informed or choose to participate - much less effort and only
>> takes
>> a few seconds in comparison to browsing forums 
>>     
>
> ... and therein lies the nub of the problem. In other contexts they
> refer to it as 'push' vs 'pull' technology and 'push' is known to be
> more effective. That is, I know from my experience that unless it's
> pushed at me my interest wanes. Surely, only the dedicated user logs on
> and surfs around a forum several times a day. That's not me. 
>
> Alternatively, plug is good because we* are small and intimate and
> mental filtering or 'rules-based' filtering is a snap. Consider bigger
> mail lists where I get more than a hundred messages a day. It can seem
> daunting to find the gems in the poo, but it is still do-able. I
> wouldn't bother on a forum.
>
> BTW: I think this issue/dilemma comes up on many mail lists ;-) Just
> another $0.05 worth ;-)   
>
> Gavin
>
> (* : I boldly say 'we' because the group is small and you get to know
> something of each other through postings. However, I am not a financial
> member because I live too far for meetings and am an impoverished
> student. Sorry about that apparent lack of commitment, but nevertheless
> I think the plug list is great!) 
>
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