[Asterisk-Users] Are there online forums instead of this email

[Bruno Hertz]

"Francesco Peeters" <Francesco at FamPeeters.com> writes:

>> On the other hand imagine a forum with subtopics like sipura, softphones,
>> zap or whatever. Wouldn't that maybe help to put some load off at least
>> the casual reader and poster seeking or giving advice for topics he/she
>> specialized in, and maybe even the more active participants? Just a
>> thought, and not a bad one imho.
>>
>
> Nah, like I said, IMHO it's not different from multiple maillists, as long
> as the same rules are applied consistenly...   ;-)

Well, it's easy to say nah if you don't want to think about it. Again, I
favor mailing lists too, and all would be OK for me if ppl here weren't
already complaining about volume and stuff.

So, let me point out two obvious differences you missed:

(1) Subscription

With a web forum, you register once to the whole forum and have thus access
to all topics. On the other hand, when you have like twenty mailing lists on
various * topics, who (especially of them newcomers) would subscribe to them
all? E.g. if you only have one or two questions to post you'll subscribe to
the most introductory/general list and are very likely to stay there.

(2) Topic choice

With a web forum, you have all topics generally visible on the main page
and are likely to see them any time you visit the forum, while when subscribing
to lists you do it once and stay. How often do you actually look what other
lists are actually available for particular topics? Only if you're forced
to, I gather, e.g. because you don't get help on your current list(s). So
with mailing lists, there's just higher gravity which lets ppl stick e.g.
to -users.

Anyway, before saying nah, please keep in mind that I'm not advocating
anything right now but just suggesting to keep an open mind since there
actually *are* problems with this list ppl have been complaining about
for some time. As nothing seems to improve in the current setup, it
wouldn't hurt, while discussing this, to at least seriously consider and
thoroughly evaluate alternatives.

Regards, Bruno.