[cw-discuss] Web Forum Poll

[Daniel Llewellyn]

On 15 Nov 2007, at 19:51, Andrew Chandler wrote:

> I would much prefer to keep this an email list

I would imagine most of the responses to this request will be from  
email advocates who see their beloved existing system changed or taken  
away.

> As pointed out by others google desktop (or other mechanisms)  
> provide a superior search experience to that of any forums.

That's a problem with any inherently server-based system: a web forum  
only provides simple keyword search with no boolean operators etc. If  
CodeWeavers were to be spending any sort of cash for this project, I  
would suggest looking into getting a (some) google appliance(s) which  
you can set to catalogue the web interface only. Then it's just a case  
of providing access to the appliance(s) via a secured proxy front-end  
server(-farm), such as squid with a custom database backend auth plugin.

> If you do move to the web interface I believe there exist gateway  
> mechanisms
> that would allow forum traffic to be emailed out and to receive email
> submissions which might keep myself and other email advocates happy  
> while
> also pleasing those who prefer to look at a forum style interface.

Most forum systems provide email notification, but do not send the  
full copy of the new posting. Ideally, as has been posted before, the  
system should be a fully integrated NNTP (Usenet) system that allows a  
full email interface, sending new posts in the form of a mailing list,  
and providing email posting. Then it should also have a full web-based  
interface which again supports full browsing of the archives in forum  
layout and direct posting.