On Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 01:45:56PM +1200, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
> Dan Shafer <dshafer at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 	It seems to me that if we moved from the older mailing list model 
> 	to a true discussion board or Swiki model for all of our 
> 	discussions, we'd all be enriched and our experience would be 
> 	both more effective and more efficient.
> 
> AARGH!  No!  Please!  Not another thing where I have to click all over
> the place.  The day I have to use a browser to read Squeak news is the
> day I unsubscribe.


I agree with this.  I've gotten quite soured  on web-based discussion
of any kind..it just isn't all that effective, for me.  I tend to get lost
on high-volume web discussion boards (ie Slashdot on a bad day), and I
usually skip most of the follow-ups.  I would hate to do that here, since
the follow ups to any given message tend to be quite interesting!

> 
> 
> 	But I never hear anyone 
> 	suggest this, which indicates perhaps I am alone in my feeling 
> 	that this is such an archaic and relatively inefficient way of 
> 	dealing with such material.
> 	
> I think the mailing list is a very _efficient_ way to process this
> material.  It's an order of magnitude more pleasant than using a browser.
> 
> 


Yes, I like the mailing list too.  Depending on how I'm logged in, I have
different ways of viewing it...all my mail gets routed to different MH-style
folders.  If I'm ssh'd into my machine I use mutt, otherwise I use
exmh.  (if I'm feeling sadistic I'll use straight MH)

ANYWAY--this issue keeps coming up, it seems.  Perhaps the solution would
be to come up with more-than-one way to view this list.  It would be nice
to have alternatives...perhaps a decent web-based front-end could be made
to compliment (not replace) the list, as well as NNTP.

It's not impossible...I've been messing around with the Citadel/UX BBS
software and it has multiple front-ends to do just this (I'm not suggesting
we use Citadel, it's just an example).  The WebCit web front-end is quite
nice.   Citadel can take mailing lists and convert them into USENET-like
message boards, which you can view via the text, web or native interface.

Perhaps something like this can be cobbled together in Squeak?  We've already
got the web capability via Swiki...