[Mapserver-users] Other MapServer mailing lists

[Martin Tomko]

Hi List,
this is a vital discussion, and even not being involved in the development, 
my last half year with mapserver and this list was just wonderfull and I 
would like to keep it so....
I think that what we need is a better interface for the list archives... So 
that the topics can really be sorted by tread, searched, ... They may not 
always be really comprehensible...On the other hand, we cannot adopt the 
way of ESRI, which probably has people payed for reviewing all the lists 
and giving support. If I would not get the support I got from the guys in 
this list, my experience with mapserver would be as long as the one with 
deegree (2 days, no functionality working...) This list helpped me to 
overcome this, and I did not give up... Even though I am still a newbie, 
and CGI interfacing is enough for me... (not for long).

Suggestions:
1. we can create new mailing lists, but I would strongly discourage the 
creation of the "newbie" list. HOwever, I feel that the developers are 
somehow overloaded and even less advanced users could help  - for example 
the documentation is really not up to date, and I understand it... MAybe we 
(the intermediate users) could have a "documentation" list, where we would 
do pre-realease testing and documentaiton  (in the specific areas of 
interest), so that all the changes are mirrored there as soon as possible. 
I am willing to give some time on it.
2. pay more attention to deleting the text in replies, removing unnecessary 
formatting and setting up a virus scan /junk mail scan is usefull. Oh, and 
please, no "out of office messages!!"
3. I am subscribed to the daily digest. I do not like the HTML formatting, 
but a cool functionality could be to have the top of the list with the 
outlines of the subjects as hyperlinks, so that I could directly jump to 
the message concerned...(is this somehow feasible??).

Cheers!!

Martin