I gotta say that Toni enumerated quite well what I was vaguely hinting at with "this is a forum".<br><br>Along these same lines, I would like to bring up a related issue to the webforum-linking-with-mailforum thing... Can we please get a prefix or suffix tag of [FORUM] or something? This way we can use our superior MUA searching/sorting/filtering features to do with them as we need.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br>Merlin<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:37 AM, Toni Mueller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:support-nginx@oeko.net">support-nginx@oeko.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
I'm sorry, but I can't let you say this unanswered:<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On Thu, 12.03.2009 at 18:15:36 +0000, Jim Ohlstein <<a href="mailto:jim.ohlstein@gmail.com">jim.ohlstein@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> A mailing list is a forum of sorts but without the features of more<br>
> sophisticated software.<br>
<br>
</div>a mailing list is something entirely different, imho.<br>
<br>
> File attachments,<br>
<br>
send mail with an attachment<br>
<br>
> private messagiing,<br>
<br>
send email to one person only (ie, outside the list)<br>
<br>
> threaded discussions,<br>
<br>
standard feature of non-broken MUAs (ie, mutt, Thunderbird, Evolution,<br>
etc).<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> easy access to older posts<br>
<br>
</div>mailing list archive, may be even downloadable<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> to name but a few.<br>
<br>
</div>Forums typically have these additional drawbacks in my experience:<br>
<br>
- synchronous communications - ie, it won't work if the forum server<br>
has a hiccup or is currently hacked.<br>
<br>
- tends to mess up attachments<br>
<br>
- stricter limits on attachment sizes<br>
<br>
- centralized (even private messages need to go through the server)<br>
<br>
- threading is usually sub-par with MUAs, flexible sorting and<br>
searching is usually not available<br>
<br>
- sorting and searching taxes the server, not the client (as with MUAs)<br>
<br>
- broken search results with about any search engines because whole<br>
threads appear on one page<br>
<br>
- usually no downloadable archives<br>
<br>
- tend to vanish in a whim if the admin loses interest, or if the forum<br>
package gets swapped (all links break, nobody fixes them, archives<br>
are lost forever)<br>
<br>
- slow performance, high cost for the operator (much higher than a<br>
mailing list)<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> It's simply another way to communicate and get/offer support.<br>
<br>
</div>Yes, and one that causes more fraction and friction to the user base<br>
(imho).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<font color="#888888">--Toni++<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>