dshafer@yahoo.com wrote:
Let me clarify a couple of things.
First, I'm not advocating eliminating the mailing list at all, just adding a discussion baord to >it.
Second, any decent discussion board these days allows you to participate via email in both >directions: receiving and replying. So really a discussion board -- done right, at least -- is a >strict superset of a mailing list with the added ability to deal with threads, archiving, keeping >discuissions on topic, filtering, etc.
Thinking about it, a php wizard should be able to put something together which both pulls stuff off the email list and sends stuff to it from a discussion board (the same thing could be done for a newsgroup too) this would be great. But, as someone pointed out, the real trick is to make sure stuff doesn't get replicated. If that could be done (it may well be that someone has already done it: anyone thinking of writing such an application should post to the MySQL/php/etc. lists before putting fingers to vi) it'd be tremendous.
Would this be acceptable to everyone?
I agree that absent an email "push" many people won't participate even in communities they value. It's a real paradox for those of us who love and live in discussion board land but it's real.
--- In squeak@y..., John Hinsley <jhinsley@t...> wrote:
Dan Shafer wrote:
I don't subscribe to the list by email any longer (though I spent the past year doing so) because I found it too cluttered an experience, regardless of whether I used the digest or dealt with individual emails. Following threads was very difficult at best and filtering out topics in which I was not interested proved all but impossible.
Ah, I wondered where you'd gone ;-)
I wasn't just joking: I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses your contributions.
I think Rosemary makes the point beautifully:
The issue, I think, is having a variety of tools for different mindsets that captures the same material.
For me, that's the issue: all the tools must make the material available to *all* the others, otherwise we effectively dilute the community. Otherwise, well, I quite like bulletin boards.
Cheers
John
And cheers again!
John
Not particularly squeak-stretching, but - I think there's good potential in the direction of wiki/mail list integration. I have been experimenting with this. For those interested, here's one way it can work:
- the wiki has a mailbox. Mail sent there gets appended to the wiki page named in the subject header. (With this setup, pages correspond roughly to discussion threads or topics).
- people may subscribe to individual pages (or the whole wiki). Subscribers are cc'd via email whenever a comment is appended to a page. Any email replies they make get directed back to the same page.
- optional: the wiki provides a web form for appending comments. These are equivalent to posts sent via email, and may be easier than (and have different permissions from) full page edits.
Voila! A basic but flexible discussion forum in which one can participate via email, through the web, or both. Performance, reliability, & abuse protection issues: to be resolved.
Thoughts ?
-Simon
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