Discuss mailing list

[<vv AT cgs.pw>]

Well I don't think we'll lose anybody. :)
Those of us who don't prefer mailing lists
are currently using the mailing list with
only a modicum of griping. :) I doubt there
is anybody here who will not use a forum on
principle, or because of technical or
accessibility issues.

That said, when it comes to talking about
the number of people, I'd say that mailing
lists don't really scale very well. It's fine
with a few people and a few posts a day. But
when it comes to larger numbers then a forum
can handle any amount with ease. The ML had
over 80 messages today, I think.

Also, I would point out that forums do not
need to have a huge amount of graphics and
stuff that distracts. In fact they can be
very business like. Here is one that I set
up some years ago, but abandoned. One good
feature is that it has sections that are
not visible unless you are logged in. And
there is also a section that only certain
listed members can see, which can be of use
for administrative use.
   http://ykix.org
I show that only as an example of readability
and proof of concept that light grey text is
not a given and there is actually no technical
need to make us older folks feel unwelcome.
The CSS on forums is easy to change to anything
you want.

Another thing about forums is the personal
message function. You can do conversations
in the background as PM without others reading
them. This is not just a privacy thing, but
helps keep the general communication clean when
what you want to say is either off topic or
personal comment.

Note too, that on a forum, other people don't
see your email address. This is particularly
important in a public setting where people will
be finding us through search engines. So even
though the public can read the messages and
learn from them, they cannot spam you. This
makes a forum a little like the best of both
IRC and ML.

As it is now there is a curious aspect to the
way we are communicating. We are hiding from
the public. Yes, with some work, our conversations
can be found, but they are not going to come up
in Duckduckgo or Google when someone is searching
for OpenNIC information. A forum becomes a public
record and shows transparency.

Regards,
        Ole Juul


On Sun, 04 Dec 2016 09:11:03 +0000
Philipp Schafft <lion AT lion.leolix.org> wrote:

> Good morning,
> 
> On Sun, 2016-12-04 at 05:38 +0000, dc0 wrote:
> > This sounds like a great idea honestly and could make
> > discussions related to OpenNIC more assessable to those
> > who are allergic to mailing lists.  
> 
> And loose all those allergic to forums ;)
> 
> with best regards,
>