[Mapserver-users] Other MapServer mailing lists

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Hi,

<soapbox>

There is nothing stopping an enterprising soul from setting up phpnuke 
and subscribing it to the list, then it could take all the messages and 
sort them into forums. It should also be possible for messages posted to 
any forum to be forwarded to the list.

The bottom line is that all great ideas boil down to the dumb fact the 
someone has to DO something. If there is enough interest in a forum 
beside just wanting to talk about it. It will happen and does not need 
to happen via umn. This subject seems to come up every 6 months or so.

Also consider that we do have a read-only forum already. We spell it 
"list archive" :)

I would think the appropriate way to deal with a lot of the traffic is 
to improve on the documentation, create a "newbie" FAQ, etc. and make it 
easier for people to find. Also getting more people to use and update 
the wiki would be helpful it is not the easiest thing to find, if you 
don't have it already book marked.

</soapbox>

-Steve W.

Merrett, Mike wrote:

> I think a forum setup might be better -- phpnuke is free (phpnuke.org) and
> after a bit of initial setup (not much) is ready to go
> 
> Just my $0.02
>    Mike Merrett
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mapserver-users-admin at lists.gis.umn.edu
> [mailto:mapserver-users-admin at lists.gis.umn.edu]On Behalf Of
> Julien-Samuel Lacroix
> Sent: June 17, 2004 8:36 AM
> To: Tyler Mitchell
> Cc: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Subject: Re: [Mapserver-users] Other MapServer mailing lists
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Perhaps adding some tools to respond for common questions could solve a 
> part of the problem. It will reduce the amount of traffic on the list 
> without splitting it (It seems that a majority does not want to split). 
> I have two ideas here.
> 
> First one, adding a "first time here" (Any other name idea are welcome) 
> to the mapserver website. This would be a tool for new users that will 
> take them by the hand and will explain them what's mapserver, what are 
> the main component and more important, where to look to have the 
> information they need (mailing-list, wiki, google, etc.). This would 
> have to be very straight forward to do not overwhelm new users with to 
> much information. This could also be great for teaching new users how 
> they can contribute to community via the mailing-list/wiki. And then 
> here's come the second idea.
> 
> The wiki is a great tool for user contribution, but it's a bit chaotic 
> and maybe sometimes it's hard to find were to look for when you have a 
> weird error message. So maybe having a wiki page (pointed by the "first 
> time here" page) that list all clickable error messages could be great. 
> Then if you click on an error message then you will find all user 
> contributed solutions to this problem. For sure it will not apply to all 
> error since it always depends on mapfile, installation, permissions, 
> etc., but I think it may be worthful to a lot of cases. Also we will 
> need to encourage users to contribute to this. It's a kind of FAQ, maybe 
>   we should just get a more complete FAQ page or multiple FAQ pages 
> (Mapscript FAQ, Raster FAQ, Query FAQ, etc.).
> 
> The idea is to not split the list in many multiple sublist since most of 
> us will subscribe to all of them anyway. So maybe we should only provide 
> more tools to get less traffic on the current list.
> 
> My 0,02$
> 
> Julien
> 
> Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> 
>>Some of us have been discussing/debating about how to improve the
>>MapServer community, specifically via the mailing lists.  The idea is that
>>there might be some benefit gained from creating a new list or two.
>>
>>I am not sure how well all the questions get answered, especially
>>considering the volume of mail coming through these days.
>>
>>- I've heard from more than a few people that they unsubscribe after their
>>question is answered because the traffic is so high.  Do you think new
>>users would benefit from a less threatening (lower volume!) newbie list?
>>- Would some specific technical areas benefit from having a list (i.e.
>>Mapscript)?
>>- Would an "announcement only" list be useful?
>>
>>What do you others on the list think?
>>
>>Tyler
>>
>>p.s. for those of you who were overcome with guilt for never replying to 
>>my surveys, now's your chance to participate ;) ha!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Mapserver-users mailing list
>>Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
>>http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
>>
> 
>