[cw-discuss] Web Forum Poll

[Chuck Stuettgen]

On Thu, 2007-11-15 at 10:58 -0600, Jeremy Newman wrote:
> Hello everyone. We are curious how many of you like the idea of
> switching this discuss mailing list to a web based forum.
> 
> We recently added the ability to subscribe to forums via the website.
> Granted this is currently one way, you will receive emails of forum
> posts, but to reply you will need to follow the link in the email.
> 
> This is a pretty divided issue. Some prefer web, some prefer email. I'm
> leaning more towards web these days as I find it easier to search and
> navigate old posts on the website.
> 
> Comments?

I prefer e-mail. Like many of the other posters, I am subscribed to a
dozen mailing lists which generate nearly 300 messages a day all sorted
neatly into various folders in Evolution for me to view and respond to
quickly and easily. Additionally, I retain the messages for at least
year which allows me to use Evolutions extensive search capabilities to
locate information I may need to solve a problem. None of the web forums
I have ever used have had a search capability any where close to what
Evolution has.  

The computing resources required to run a web forum are significantly
more than what is required to run a mailing list. As a web forums use
goes up, the hardware has to be continually upgraded or replaced if you
are going provide a usable end user experience. There is nothing more
frustrating than to click on a header to open a message and wait, and
wait, and wait, and wait for the system to open the message, and if the
site has banner advertising ugh....  Just recall how many times you have
had to wait for a page to load on a website today while it was trying to
load a banner from double-click or one of the other dozen or so ad
servers. 

In my experience web forums do not lend themselves to the same
spontaneity for generating responses that e-mail does. Most people are
very familiar with their e-mail program and how to use it.  With Web
forums there is no standard user interface which leaves the user to have
to learn a different interface for every forum.

Finally, in every case where a mailing list, I have been subscribed to,
has been replaced with a web forum, I have stopped participating.

Thanks for allowing us to give you our input before you changed the
system.