"Jeff Durling" <jdurling@bellsouth.net> wrote:
[...]
: As for Jon not replying he's working I'm sure or just hoping that this
: thread will die and he doesn't have to worry about it. ;-p
Heh heh heh! A little from column A, a little from column B... ;-)
Actually, my real job kept me busy all day running around instead of
sitting at the computer.
Ok, here goes... :-)
Having been weaned on mailing lists and Usenet, I personally don't
care for web forums too much mainly because they (for lack of a better
term) are "too much work". I like mailing lists and Usenet because
its a passive activity - you are a part of a group, and all the messages
come to you. With a forum, you have to find the time to visit the
site, then actively navigate through umpteen different categories.
(pray that people actually post in the proper sections!) I am a member
of a few web forum style groups, but I rarely visit them just because of
that overhead.
Granted, it is nice to be able to post pictures right away...unless
you are on a dialup. :-) I do still have to think about dialup and
text based users; this is also why I don't allow attachments or HTML
posts to the DML.
A part of it also is I enjoy the "pure" content, and the web
interface seems to put "fluff" in the way of that content.
I do run a web forum on dragtruk.com, so I am familiar with not
only the use, but the administration of them.
Essentially what it comes down to is that I absolutely refuse
to eliminate the e-mail/newsgroup versions of the DML. Of course,
the DML started as a mailing list, and the newsgroup version was
added later and tied in nicely; someone could read and post on
either version, and no matter which version other DMLers were
using, they would all get the same messages. If it were possible
to do the same with a web forum, where anything posted to the forum
would show up on the e-mail version of the list, and vice versa, I
would have absolutely no problem implementing that. Unfortunately,
as far as I know, this sort of interoperability is not yet possible.
Just as I am unwilling to completely convert the DML to web forums,
I am equally unwilling to split the DML such that some messages show up
on the e-mail/news side, and some on the web side. In order for me
to implement web forums, all messages MUST go to all versions of the
list.
I guess what it comes down to is, what is the reason for wanting
a web forum? To be able to have a place to read & post to the DML
via the web? (That ability is already somewhat here by reading the
DML via the archives - every message in the archives now has a link
in it to be able to reply to that message - though it does so via
your e-mail client. The disadvantage is the delay for the posts
to show up in the archives, and the size of the archive index as it gets
towards the end of the month. I could speed up the time for the posts
to hit the archives to every hour, but the archive size problem there is
no getting around.) Perhaps there is a web based newsreader
software out there which I could install on the server that would
allow DMLers to access the list through the newsgroup version, via
their web browser. Would that accomplish the desired goal?
I have a feeling that is probably about the closest the DML
will be able to come to a web forum - because if the desire is to
have it divided into several different forum sections (i.e. engine
related questions, Gen I/II/III, whatever), I don't see a way to
translate e-mail and newsgroup postings automatically into one of
those forums - since e-mail and news has no such preconception...
Anyhoo, there's where I am coming from - I don't know if it
helps or not or if it will lead to anything more useful to the
web forum inclined DMLers, but if I am able to make the DML better
for some without compromising it for others, I will make every
effort to do so!
---Jon-
.---- Jon Steiger ------ jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com ------. | I'm the: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA. Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | 70 Cuda, 90 Dak 'vert, 92 Ram 4x4, 96 Dak, 96 Intruder 1400, 96 FireFly | `------------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'
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