[Mapserver-users] List as Forum??

[Liz Godwin]

Re (various things)...

>>> Gerry Creager <gerry.creager at tamu.edu> 02/23/04 03:25PM >>>
>where, in  a digest or 
>forum package, I'd have to spend more time with each piece.

Actually in a forum... you can just not click on the thread and you
won't have to delete/read any of the messages. 


e-mail notification..  I agree that it could be nice to have the option
to be notified of incoming messages, although personally I only want
notification if I am contributing to the thread.

searching..  improving search engine may increase my happiness.  while
Google is an interesting option I hadn't thought of..  it doesn't sort
the returned results by any means other than by 'relevance'.  This
doesn't solve my thread sorting, which means I won't use it.

a NNTP service...  would improve my thread following/sorting problem. 


In a forum setting, my view is..  that there could be different topics,
helping me narrow down what I read.  Something in a PostGIS group for
example, I might ignore because I don't know PostGIS, even if the title
is obscure.  But if an obscure title were in another group I followed, I
might read it anyway.I have a hard time following threads in a common
group to see what was said.  This usually means I don't contribute to
the list often because I don't have time to read through all the
messages.  And for those who post without interesting keywords..  the
messages will just be ignored.

Anyway, I'm glad this discussion has spawned comments one way or
another.  

For an example of a site I like, athough it is very advanced and
overkill for what we'd need, is sitepoint.com
phpBB sites are good too where I have seen them in place.  The out of
the box design is good in itself.

Liz

>>> Gerry Creager <gerry.creager at tamu.edu> 02/23/04 03:25PM >>>
Forum or digest posts are harder for me to filter appropriately. 
They're not as convenient from that perspective.  I can read a lot of 
mail with the delete key if it's uninteresting, where, in  a digest or

forum package, I'd have to spend more time with each piece.

Liz Godwin wrote:
> Hi List,
> 
> Last week was one of those weeks when I was really hunting for
answers
> to various questions.  In doing so, I have come to appreciate forums
> compared to mailing lists for finding information, and especially
for
> following threads.  The activity on this mailing list is so great
that I
> find it hard to follow.  I have messages filtered into a separate
> folder, but that's not enough.  I also find the archive difficult to
> search, both index and thread pages usually sqewing the results of a
> query. 
> 
> I propose that this list be migrated to a forum.  Who hosts it is
> another question. The most logical host would be UMN's mapserver
site.
> 
> Any one else have comments to this?  Are there reason's NOT to
migrate
> to a forum?  It just seems silly to have 1000 mailboxes filled with
40
> (yesterday's count) messages a day (or 1 really long one if
digested)
> when they can be posted on a common site where we can go look at it,
> sorted by thread, grouped into categories/levels whatever.  It's
more
> "user friendly" IMHO.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Liz Godwin
> _______________________________________________
> Mapserver-users mailing list
> Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu 
> http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users 

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu 
Network Engineering -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020
FAX:  979.847.8578 Pager:  979.228.0173
Office: 903A Eller Bldg, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843