[CentOS] OT: Top Posting

[Akemi Yagi]

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:53 PM, Carol Anne Ogdin <caogdin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jumping in late here:  I sincerely wish that this list was maintained on any
> of the quality "bulletin board" or "Forum" tools.  It would reduce my eMail
> load, allow me to zoom in on just the issues of interest to me at the
> moment, and I can eMail those posts to myself that are relevant to my own
> needs for further editing and documentation.
>
> I find the entire USENET and eMail list thing utterly antediluvian, and
> wicked hard to use.  Often, I can only barely remember that *maybe*
> something relevant was discussed months ago, but is now relevant to my
> current issue today.  A "forum" is more practical as a tool for building a
> collective knowledge of the CentOS community.  This eMail list just doesn't
> cut it for a "knowledge base" built up of our collective experience.
>
> Of course, for those of you who still prefer this medium, a "forum" can
> eMail you posts, just like you see them today.  But people who would like to
> search for a solution from a year or so ago could search the central
> resource.
>
> --Carol Anne

I think this post gives us a good message.  That is that, just like
there are many people who hate the forums, there are many users who
prefer the forums over the mailing lists.

>From what I have been observing by participating in the BOTH worlds
for the last year or so, the number of people who are being helped in
the forums outgrows that of the mailing lists.  And if you do google
searches, you tend to find forum posts more than mailing posts.  BUT,
my intention is not to make a comparison -- they just have different
audience.

The point I want to make is that if you feel one method is not as
well-served as the other, efforts should be made to make the other
method equally good.  CentOS provides the two major venues, and we
should be able to choose whichever the one we feel more comfortable
without sacrificing the quality of help we get.  The "C" in CentOS is
the driving force of the whole project.  We, community members, as a
whole always need to think how best we can help others.

My 2 cents worth,

Akemi