[Mageia-discuss] User support mailing list?

[doug]

On 04/06/11 05:12, Remco Rijnders wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 04, 2011 at 12:25:03PM +1000, Doug Laidlaw wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jun 2011 10:04:10 AM
>> mageia-discuss-request at mageia.org wrote:
>>> Yes, posting here achieved a faster result. But this is
>>> not because ml
>>> of users would be better. It is because you posted where
>>> there was more
>>> people available and less questions.
>>
>> What I like about mailing lists/Usenet is:
>>
>> (a) I see everrything that comes up. Good for general
>> education, when I am
>> not an IT person. I can't broswe a forum the same way;
>> perhaps that is just
>> me.
>
> I'm much the same way. Posts to a mailing list I will read,
> most things on a forum I just miss as it goes on. Only
> exception to that mailing list rule is the Mageia bugs list,
> there I do need to cherry pick what I read due to the
> massive amounts of mail it gets.
>
> Another thing I like is that I can sort, mark, filter and
> read mails on a list in any way I like be it from home or at
> work in a client of my own choice.
>
>> (b) the occasional humorous exchanges. Yes, they can get
>> out of hand, but not
>> too often.
>
> Ditto. I think a mailing list is more likely to have humour
> on it. Perhaps it is more likely to have flamewars on it
> too, but I find that when I find that I'm losing my cool it
> is best to take a few steps back from it, no matter what the
> format is.
>
> Remco

There's another point - as a lurker, being able to see in 
the same mailing list both
(1) how things are developing
(2) how the problems are resolved
is a great reassurance to finally dipping my toes into 
Mageia. Presumably this is what Mageia wants to encourage.
I imagine others might be in a similar situation, where they 
would be put off trying to follow two lists, one full of 
woes and the other mainly incomprehensible.
As an example of a very successful project, the mailing list 
for Hugin has resisted splitting for much this sort of 
reasoning.

Doug