Hi, > > i'm opposed to web forums, for a number of reasons: > > * generally more trolling on forums [*] > * less thinking before posting > * far worse s/n than mailing lists because of the lack of a > subscription barrier > * mailing list archives are a valuable resource, forum archives > are a an inaccessible mess This is a questions of good indexing. Google is your friend. > * i don't want people around who will not even try to work out > how to subscribe to a mailing list. it's a matter of respect. > i offer my help for free, i'm not there to work for people too > stupid or too lazy to join a list. There are other reasons to not join a list. Not having good mail access, not wanting spam, mail-flooding, to name a few. > * mailing lists encourage community participation more than > forums imho. it's not just "drop by, ask a question, move on", > but people have to *decide* to join. thus, even relative newbies > who came here only for asking questions offer their help when > there are problems in their area of expertise, and because of > this the list is a very rich and broad source of information to me. > > just my humble 2 cents... All things considered you do have a point. But the problem still stands, the people being reached here is probably a minority of the people that are interested. There is room for improvement. To be clear, I would not want LAD/LAU to have more mail traffic than is already here. And I would most definitely not want to worsen the s/n. But I WOULD want all people that are into linux and music to have know where to turn when they have questions or propositions. It might be an unsolvable dilema, status quo is too good to abandon. > > j?rn > > > [*] regardless how focused or technically-minded the underlying > community is. there is an absolutely excellent german computer magazine > (c't), whose web forum is populated almost exclusively by mentally > challenged morons talking nonsense. out of 100 posts, you might with > luck find one that is actually worth reading. Not all forums are filled with morons, and not all mailing lists are filled with bright intelligent people like us ;). The trend might exist though, reason probably being what I was aiming for, web-forums are much more accessible, attracts more people... and probably more morons ;) ... it's a fine line between heaven and hell. /Robert
