I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web forum that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So now there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing list archives. This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a solution. I know NNTP isn't sexy, it doesn't allow graphics in posts, it doesn't have person ratings or cute smileys, and it requires a modicum of competence to use, but it DOES do all of these: . Allows off-line reading and replying, with an appropriate reader. . Searching. . Reliable way of showing you which threads have new posts. -> I have not yet found a single web forum that did this well. . Orders of magnitude faster. . Easy to archive. . Small footprint, on-disk and over-network. . Synchronisation to multiple servers, reduced network use. . Bidirectional synchronisation to a mailing list. . Supports authenticated posting, moderation, etc. --Jim -- Jim Zajkowski OpenPGP 0x21135C3 http://www.jimz.net/pgp.asc System Administrator 8A9E 1DDF 944D 83C3 AEAB 8F74 8697 A823 2113 5C53 UM Life Sciences Institute
On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 15:53 -0500, Jim Zajkowski wrote:> I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web > forum that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So > now there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing list > archives. >True ... but some users like forums, and others like mailing lists. Each has there advantages and disadvantages.> This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a > solution. > > I know NNTP isn't sexy, it doesn't allow graphics in posts, it doesn't > have person ratings or cute smileys, and it requires a modicum of > competence to use, but it DOES do all of these: > > . Allows off-line reading and replying, with an appropriate reader. > . Searching. > . Reliable way of showing you which threads have new posts. > -> I have not yet found a single web forum that did this well.check the envelope at the left after you login ... if the color is bright it's new to you ... if it is lightened out, it is not new to you.> . Orders of magnitude faster. > . Easy to archive. > . Small footprint, on-disk and over-network. > . Synchronisation to multiple servers, reduced network use. > . Bidirectional synchronisation to a mailing list. > . Supports authenticated posting, moderation, etc. > > --JimI like forums ... and I personally think that forums are easier to search. I also think that things like BOLD letters and links like: [url=xxxxx]Text[/url] Where xxxxx is a 200 character string, are much more convenient in a forum. BUT ... I realize that there is no right answer, much like the vi / emacs argument, the GNOME / KDE argument, and the evolution / mutt argument. However, I think offering both is what a community based distro, with users in mind should do. I could be wrong though ... my wife reminds me of that quite often :) -- Johnny Hughes <http://www.HughesJR.com/>
The other big thing to remember is that many of us do not have NNTP feeds at work, where e-mail and the web are easy to get to. -----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at caosity.org [mailto:centos-bounces at caosity.org] On Behalf Of Johnny Hughes Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 3:05 PM To: CentOS Users Subject: Re: [Centos] NNTP versus web forums On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 15:53 -0500, Jim Zajkowski wrote:> I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web > forum that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So > now there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing > list archives. >True ... but some users like forums, and others like mailing lists. Each has there advantages and disadvantages.> This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a > solution. > > I know NNTP isn't sexy, it doesn't allow graphics in posts, it doesn't> have person ratings or cute smileys, and it requires a modicum of > competence to use, but it DOES do all of these: > > . Allows off-line reading and replying, with an appropriate reader. > . Searching. > . Reliable way of showing you which threads have new posts. > -> I have not yet found a single web forum that did this well.check the envelope at the left after you login ... if the color is bright it's new to you ... if it is lightened out, it is not new to you.> . Orders of magnitude faster. > . Easy to archive. > . Small footprint, on-disk and over-network. > . Synchronisation to multiple servers, reduced network use. > . Bidirectional synchronisation to a mailing list. > . Supports authenticated posting, moderation, etc. > > --JimI like forums ... and I personally think that forums are easier to search. I also think that things like BOLD letters and links like: [url=xxxxx]Text[/url] Where xxxxx is a 200 character string, are much more convenient in a forum. BUT ... I realize that there is no right answer, much like the vi / emacs argument, the GNOME / KDE argument, and the evolution / mutt argument. However, I think offering both is what a community based distro, with users in mind should do. I could be wrong though ... my wife reminds me of that quite often :) -- Johnny Hughes <http://www.HughesJR.com/> _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at caosity.org http://lists.caosity.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
No, I mean the vast majority of employers block 119 and do not offer news service. I realize you do not need a local server, but you have to be able to connect to pull it from somewhere... -----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at caosity.org [mailto:centos-bounces at caosity.org] On Behalf Of Jim Zajkowski Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 4:06 PM To: CentOS discussion and information list Subject: Re: [Centos] NNTP versus web forums On Jan 8, 2005, at 4:46 PM, Mark A. Lewis wrote:> The other big thing to remember is that many of us do not have NNTP > feeds at work, where e-mail and the web are easy to get to.You don't need a local nntp server to read news, any nntp client can connect to any other nntp server, assuming that that server lets you connect. I'm not in favor of creating a CentOS topic under the usenet comp.sys hierarchy, I'm talking about running a private nntp server. For example, Novell runs their forums over nntp, and people configure their clients to connect to news.novell.com. When I was a student we used a local nntp server for class forums and project help. --Jim -- Jim Zajkowski OpenPGP 0x21135C3 http://www.jimz.net/pgp.asc System Administrator 8A9E 1DDF 944D 83C3 AEAB 8F74 8697 A823 2113 5C53 UM Life Sciences Institute _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at caosity.org http://lists.caosity.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 15:53:37 -0500, Jim Zajkowski <jim at jimz.net> wrote:> I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web > forum that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So > now there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing list > archives. > > This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a > solution.That's funny because the thought about having "two places to search" occurred to me a couple of days ago when I read the following two posts: http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/centos/2005-January/001496.html http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2005-January/000574.html I am new to Centos so correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming that developers and end users were initially corresponding with each other via mailing lists. In my opinion, redirecting some future discussions to the web forums while leaving others on the mailing lists seems counter productive. I'm not familiar with the CMS software that is being used at centos.org but is there any mailing list <-> web forum software available for it?
Even if there isn't, it wouldn't be hard to 'inject' the mail list posts into the database for the forums, just use the subject as the topic, give it it's own subforum. Going the other way could be a bit harder. -----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at caosity.org [mailto:centos-bounces at caosity.org] On Behalf Of Avtar Gill Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 8:23 PM To: CentOS discussion and information list Subject: Re: [Centos] NNTP versus web forums On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 15:53:37 -0500, Jim Zajkowski <jim at jimz.net> wrote:> I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web > forum that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So > now there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing > list archives. > > This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a > solution.That's funny because the thought about having "two places to search" occurred to me a couple of days ago when I read the following two posts: http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/centos/2005-January/001496.html http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2005-January/000574.html I am new to Centos so correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming that developers and end users were initially corresponding with each other via mailing lists. In my opinion, redirecting some future discussions to the web forums while leaving others on the mailing lists seems counter productive. I'm not familiar with the CMS software that is being used at centos.org but is there any mailing list <-> web forum software available for it? _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at caosity.org http://lists.caosity.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Jim Zajkowski wrote:> I see that a number of questions are being answered on the new web forum > that is now part of the centos site. And the mailing lists So now > there are two places to search, both the forum and the mailing list > archives. > > This is just doubles the work required to follow along or find a solution. > > I know NNTP isn't sexy, it doesn't allow graphics in posts, it doesn't > have person ratings or cute smileys, and it requires a modicum of > competence to use, but it DOES do all of these: > > . Allows off-line reading and replying, with an appropriate reader. > . Searching. > . Reliable way of showing you which threads have new posts. > -> I have not yet found a single web forum that did this well. > . Orders of magnitude faster. > . Easy to archive. > . Small footprint, on-disk and over-network. > . Synchronisation to multiple servers, reduced network use. > . Bidirectional synchronisation to a mailing list. > . Supports authenticated posting, moderation, etc. > > --Jim >many mailing lists , including this one, can be read on the newsserver news.gmane.org . This is extremely nice because they do not clutter my mailbox, and are easily searchable. Kay