[WARNING - NOT VIRUS SCANNED] Re: [sdiy] message board

[jure zitnik]

while i can't say i prefer a traditional mailing list over a web
forum, i can say i've sorted it out. i'm subscribed to a few mailing
lists now and i use them almost the same way as a forum.

gmail.

set up a filter to stick a label to the message comming to/from SDIY,
set it to skip inbox (so you can still have your "normal" mail in it).
and that's it. then take a look, gmail collects all the messages that
were replied to other messages, in "conversations", so you can read
them like a forum! you even have a "quick reply" box at the bottom ;)
... okay, you have to click "reply to all" before you send, but that's
all. in folder view gmail marks the "threads" that have new messages
and moves them to the top, just like forums.

two things that are on my mind:

1. "reply to all" - i know we've been through this many times. i don't
want to start another debate, i just wanted to share a thought for
those that can't get past over this "feature": obviously, the majority
of SDIY/AH use private mail replies more often than list replies.
that's probably the only explanation. and another thing - if you wan't
to have both functionalities (reply to list, reply to sender), and you
have to make them work with standard email operations (reply, reply to
all, forward), there's really no doubt what makes sense.

2. i think there are 2 kinds of SDIY users: the ones that read ALL the
messages and the ones (like me) that read just the things that
interest them. i could be wrong but that would explain why some people
prefer getting ALL messages fed directly to them personally (mailing
list style), instead of browsing somewhere to get to the
message/thread they're interested in (forum style). and if i'm right
then probably the majority of SDIY/AH users are the first type, the
one that reads ALL the messages... but that just doesn't sound
sensible :D

just my 2c,
jure

On 6/30/07, Rainer Buchty <rainer at buchty.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2007, Veronica Merryfield wrote:
>
> > For me, I prefere email lists. I know I will always get the traffic
>
> Amen to that!
>
> I just don't see why "modern" people are so obsessed with webforums.
>
> Is it because they like to hide away behind stupid avatars?
>
> Is it because they like to boast with even more stupid posting ranks?
>
> Or is it because they are masochists and like either to wade through an
> existing thread from the beginning -- or always start reading threads
> last message first?
>
> Why someone would like to prefer a pull medium over a push medium is
> beyond me. With mailing lists the messages come to you. You don't have
> to visit a gazillion of places to see what's new there. You don't need
> to receive messages that someone wrote something new into a thread you
> subscribed to and might want to visit that very website to check it out
> -- I just receive the message and decide whether I want to answer it or
> not.
>
> And there must be something to it, otherwise we wouldn't see the success
> of RSS feeds, somewhat mimicking the behavior of good old usenet in
> terms of creating a unified feed of information from several sources.
>
> Some say, webforums are a great thing because only the web stuff is
> found by Google. However, some forums are closed and not even readable
> without logging in first; besides, an automatically created (and
> open-for-reading) web-archive (like the one Mailman creates anyway) is
> visible to Google.
>
> Rainer (all in favor of traditional mailing lists)
>
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