[Centos] NNTP versus web forums

Avtar Gill avtargill at gmail.com
Sun Jan 9 04:37:12 UTC 2005


On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 21:35:20 -0600, donavan nelson <donavan at 4wx.net> wrote:
> We thought it was more important to get CentOS a face (www.centos.org)
> than have every possible bell and whistle implemented at launch.

Once again it's a matter of opinion.  I would consider the addition of
web forums (without a mailing list to forum and vice-versa gateway in
place) a bell, definitely a whistle ;) I'm saying that mainly because
the mailing lists were fulfilling the purpose of communication between
project leaders and users.

> In many cases it's what you prefer (the format).  

I agree.

> I prefer forums for a historical perspective.  IRC for real time discussion and
> mailing lists  for conveying information.  Too many people use mailing lists in
> place of realtime discussion.  See today's "Where is ethereal" for a perfect
> example.  Or this thread for that matter.

This is where we disagree, generally mailing lists and newsgroup
archives (groups.google.com, marc.theaimsgroup.com, gmane.org) are
used for the purpose of effectively archiving past discussions.  I
feel that having this discussion on the mailing lists is pretty
fitting since it will be archived and therefore be available for
anyone else as a reference.  IRC, like you noted, is for real time
discussion.  Once that conversation is over it can't be linked to in
an email for someone else's benefit.

> The cms being used on www.centos.org is xoops.  The next version of the
> forums software _should_ include mailing list <=-=> forum features.  I'm
> making no promises my self as I'm a developer of neither (xoops or the
> forums).

Great.  I (and it appears others as well) look forward to having that
option available to the people who are sticking with the mailing lists
and those who prefer web forums.

By the way, I hope my comments are perceived as constructive
criticism.  I acknowledge that it's the efforts of the Centos project
members that are sustaining this project's growth.



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