[GRASSLIST:1749] RE: New Support Forum

[Matt.Wilkie]

Hi Bruce,

> If you've got some suggestions for things you feel are 
> important, let us know so we can make the changes.  

My biggest problem with online forums is that generally they are an 
island unto themselves. If I post a question on the forum, only forum 
readers will see it and possibly respond. If the forum is a new one
and not patrolled regularily by talkative veterans it inevitably 
turns into a wasteland of unanswered "help me!" pleas which discourages
new users from participating and eventually leads to the slow withering 
death of the community.

Secondly, with regards to GRASS in particular, there is a long and 
detailed history of problems and solutions from the user community 
going back to 1991. (http://www.geog.uni-hannover.de/grass/support.html)
A "New" disconnected support forum throws all that work and knowledge
away. To be truly useful the new knowledge base needs to be rebuilt 
which is just plain silly when so much of it already exists.

Ideally the online forum and the mailing list should be joined or 
mirrored so a user simply chooses which is the most comfortable portal 
(for them) to an identical knowledge base. Personally I would be really
reluctant to fragment the community along forum/email lines and 
recommend staying away from a wholesale launch of the forum until it
can be integrated with the mailing lists.

[For most of the communities I've participated in, a mailing list is 
formed first and therefore has the broadest and most experienced user 
base. If the reverse is true then the first phrase would be just as
true if read as "My biggest problem with mailing lists is..."]

My 2 cents.


-matt

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Matt Wilkie * Yukon Renewable Resources GIS
http://renres.gov.yk.ca/pubs/rrgis/
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