Hi all, Having been on a lot of forums and mailing lists, I definitely prefer mailing lists. I've read the various pros and cons of both with interest here. Frankly, I've never found it a problem to do everything people say is great with forums with mailing lists -- and I do a lot of traveling and frequently do not have access to my own computer when I have to check mail (and reply to posts) or do web searches. The biggest issue I have with forums is that it is a nuisance to save important posts which I need to keep for whatever reason. If I can't save the post at the time, later (which might be several months later), I find that if I don't remember some of the exact wording, I may never be able to find it again on a forum. Once something moves down to the 4th or 5th page, it's gone as far as I'm concerned. I don't have that problem with mailing lists. The archives are usually threaded in such a way that I can locate posts that took place even years earlier without having to remember an exact phrase. Using Google (and Yahoo! and I assume MSN) to search a particular archives (even when the archives has no search feature) is very easy. Also, with mailing lists, I can glance at all the Subjects: in my mailbox and decide if I'm interested -- I'm frequently not. I don't have a problem with deletion. However, it happens often enough that something I hadn't thought about but turns out to be very important gets brought up by someone else on the mailing list. I would never have seen it otherwise. I certainly would never have seen it on a forum. My experiences on forums compel me to reply to one thing (otherwise I probably would have not said anything at all)... On Saturday 22 April 2006 09:07 pm, Sterling Christensen wrote: > > > You can't cancel or edit posts. Forum moderators can delete > > > spam posts. > > > > That's just a horrible feature. > > As with any kind of censorship it will do nothing but make > > people suspect you for deleting legitimate posts. > > There've been forums like that, but they die quickly. Only > forums with trustworthy admins get popular. So that's generally > not a problem. Forums can tend towards cliques. So-called "popular" forums, especially, can have this quality -- because popularity frequently equates to regulars who always show up and post. Whether you notice the censorship or not is directly related to whether you agree with the dominant viewpoints. A trustworthy admin often is one the reader agrees with -- not necessarily one that is impartial. I've seen threads locked or deleted on a number of very "popular" forums because someone aired a grievance against an important advertiser or sponsor of the forum. That isn't to say that prima donnas don't appear on mailing lists, but it's easier with a mailing list to suggest a point of view that is not the dominant one and get it heard and responded to. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Add a forum if you feel you have to have one, but don't get rid of the mailing list. Please. deedee _______________________________________________ wine-users mailing list wine-users@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.winehq.org/mailman/listinfo/wine-users
