[MLB-WIRELESS] Mailing list Vs Forum?

[Simon J Mudd]

ferni at shafted.com.au ("Andrew Dean") writes:

> Is there an advantage to running a mailing list rather than say a web based
> messageboard/forum type thing?
> 
> IMO a webbased forum's advantages would be
> 
> - It would reduce the load and bandwidth used on the servers as it wouldn't
> have to send out an e-mail to the (i have no idea how many people are
> subscribed to this list) XXX people subscribed to the list....
> 
> - You could track the threads that interesed you, I know i skip through some
> messages, mainly the political cra... stuff... when i know this is important
> but not to me
> 
> - The different mailing lists you have setup - you could make these
> sepereate forums and maybe give everyone else read-only access to them so we
> can see whats going on? etc...
> 
> - there are more things i could list but they are relating to what i've
> already said....
> 
> I'm not sure what the advantages of the mailing-list are over a forum... but
> i'm sure there must be some as there are so many mailing lists around....
> 
> Any feedback on this? anyone agree? disagree?

As a passive follower of this list I certainly hope you DON'T go this
way.  Interactive content (ie via the web) is _much_ slower than using
email.

If you are having problems with the low traffic on this list, perhaps
you need to change the software you are using.

Just to give you an idea, I'm subscribed to over 30 different mailing
lists and receive over 1000 messages daily.  To solve this problem I
"pipe" my mailing lists into a private news server and treat the
mailing lists as news groups.  This way I don't fill up my "INBOX"
and if I don't have time to follow a thread or mailing list, I just do
a "catchup" and the news reader treats all messages as read.

The other advantage is that I can configure the period that the
messages are stored on the news server, after this they are deleted
automatically.

Many people have a similar setup.  Perhaps there is a need to have an
online archive of the mailing list contents (not sure if it exists),
but don't change the way this list currently works.

Simon
--
Simon J Mudd,   Tel: +34-91-408 4878,  Mobile: +34-605-085 219
Madrid, Spain.  email: sjmudd at pobox.com,  Postfix RPM Packager

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