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Tony Hoyle wrote: > How about... close the list to nonmembers, and include in the bounce > message a message to the effect that the news server is still open for > nonmenbers to post to (will have to think about the wording). Setting up a newsreader requires a bit more effort, and its something that people are getting less familiar with, so perhaps a pointer to a mini-HOWTO read NNTP may be an idea. >> Forums are a pain but have better historical context since they keep >> their threading better than a mailman archive. Google searches will >> send them to the entire thread instead just one message -- sometimes the >> messages have broken threading. Searching/Google is a big plus (assuming the spam can be kept out). >> IMHO Forums are poor for the people using them daily, True. But I guess they have their place in life, especially for those who are only familiar with the web and never used text based Internet applications (which also still have their place and are - perhaps - easier to work with). Man I must be getting old; I'm spending more time at the CLI and less time in a GUI these days. >> unless the fancy >> formatting and smilies actually help the conversation. Wow! Dude :-) Forums are like so Kewl ! ;-) Now, where's my BillG avatar so I can show the world I'm a nerd? > I dislike web forums in general, although I did try an experimental one at > www.cvsnt.org/bb which is still running. Nice. I like it. <OT> Wow, it can use postgresql or mysql as a backend... great, since I tend to use postgresql quite a lot (I prefer it over mysql anyway) and I've been looking for a postgresql BB. </OT> The search facility is pretty useful. Perhaps if a FAQ was added to it, people might be more inclined to read it there before making the usual (help! urgent! must have a solution now!) mistakes when posting. > The problem is the mapping > between newsgroup->forum really doesn't work well since the posting styles > are different. Sure, but perhaps some solution could be possible; perhaps just forcing plain text only posts (since I can't see, in the context of cvsnt, any real need to do fancy posting). At the end of the day, if it is possible to provide multiple and interoperable ways of working with support traffic, I'm all for it: those who love lists can work with lists; those who love news can work with news; those who want a web forum can work with a forum. (And if the spam can be kept at bay/better managed, then so much the better). BTW, perhaps now would be the time to discuss/think about whether its worth breaking the main list (cvsnt) into platform-specific lists (or rather, the cvsnt continues as is, and a new list, say cvsnt-linux is added for linux support issues; repeat for other platforms are required. -- David Somers typographer/programmer/whatever