On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Kevin Horton <khorton01@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 20 Mar 2008, at 13:38, James Hawkins wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 9:55 AM, Alan McKinnon > > <alan.mckinnon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> > > >> Mailing lists - we know 'em and love 'em. Nuff said. > >> > >> The bit I don't get is interfacing the two. It's like interfacing a > >> brothel with a sex-education class - superficially similar but > >> when you > >> look closer you see they actually have nothing in common... > > > > If they weren't linked, all of us ML users would never get over to the > > forum to help exactly the type of people that need our help. > > I wonder what percentage of the ML users have responded to a help > request that originated from the forum? It seems there are only a > small percentage of current ML users who have both the knowledge and > the patience to deal with typical newbie questions posted on the > forum. Of that small number, some would be willing to register and > use the forum, and some would only help newbies if they can do so via > an email list. For this small percentage of ML users who would help > newbies, but only if via a ML, we must subject all ML users to the > crud that comes from the forum, plus the never ending back and forth > on the pros and cons of linking the forum and ML. > > Why not create a second ML - wine-newbies, and link that list to the > forum. Unlink this list from the forum. Those ML users who have the > patience to help newbies, but prefer doing so via a ML can subscribe > to wine-newbies. Those of us who prefer things the way they were can > return to peace and quiet on this ML. > > -- > Kevin Horton > Ottawa, Canada > > > > This debate has been going on for quite some time. The forum (as far as I can tell) may cater mostly to 'newbies', but is here to stay. If you don't wish to respond to such discussions, filter wine-users@xxxxxxxxxxx Making a second mailing list would only fragment more, as well as have the problem of people thinking they aren't 'newbies' when they are and vice versa. Remember, we were all inexperienced at some point. Also remember why you (most likely) signed up for wine-users, to help others (if you aren't, and just subscribe to get your questions answered, that's fine, but then you aren't affected by this either).
