[Mageia-discuss] Forum or mailing list

[Renaud (Ron) Olgiati]

There is one point that has not been made, but is to my mind important in this 
discussion. I have been on the Mandriva user list for years, and have also 
used forums (fora ?) for more specialized queries on OpenOffice and others, 
where no ML was available.

The huge difference to me between the two approaches is this: From a list I get 
emails every day, glance at them all and delete most of them immediately, 
store some of them for future reference, and try to reply to those I feel I 
can help with. The forum I only visit when I have a problem, and post a 
question, but the rest of the time I do not log in, so I do not get to see 
other people's problems, and do not get the opportunity to help.

I can hear the howls of contempt, that I leech the forum but do not contribute 
etc. but life is too short, and forum pages download too slow, for me to log 
in there daily to see what is happening, just in case I see something 
interesting or I can help others there.

We could have both a mailing list and a forum, separate, but this would cause 
a multiplication (and waste) of efforts, and loose the cross-pollination 
between the ML community and the Forum community.

So, to my mind, the best option would be to have all messages appearing on 
both a forum for those who prefer that format, and a mailing list for those 
whose preference goes that way, thus giving all what they like/need/want 
without waste or loss to either group. 
 
Cheers,
 
Ron, on the banks of the Paraguay River.
-- 
                  I always have a quotation for everything;
                         it saves original thinking.
                                       -- Lord Peter Wimsey
                                    
                   -- http://www.olgiati-in-paraguay.org --