[CentOS-devel] Talk about existing forums

[Les Mikesell]

Ralph Angenendt wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Akemi Yagi wrote:
>>> Just as there are people who do not like forums, there are *many*
>>> users who do not like the mailing lists.
>> There are things that could be improved in the mail list rather than
>> dividing the user base.
> 
> Can you make suggestions or do you want to go on speaking in riddles?

There are things that make the mailing list difficult for new users.  The big 
thing is that is doesn't have an easy search - and that you have to go out of 
your way to find it in the first place.  The forums are one link away from the 
main page to where you can find some things, while the mail lists have cryptic 
names and links to archives that are only meaningful to people familiar with 
internet lists.   Of course new users are going to find the forums easier. And 
even in the threaded view of the archives you have to go month-by-month instead 
of being able to follow a conversation.

The other thing about either forums or lists is that there is always a lot of 
incorrect, incomplete, and misleading information in old posts so it is best if 
common issues/solutions are summarized to the wiki and subsequent responses 
include references to those articles - which must also be kept up to date as the 
issues change.  That way a search (if one existed...) would likely find the 
pointer to the best answer in the most recent response.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com