Bart Schaefer wrote: > On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 8:08 AM, Carol Anne Ogdin <caogdin at gmail.com> wrote: >> Les Mikesell questioned, "...who would go there to post any answers?" The >> answer is the same people who share here...and probably many more who find >> this sparse medium harder to navigate. > > I, for one, would be unlikely to go there to post answers. (Not that > I'm a font of answers here, but see for example the zsh mailing > lists). All forum software that I've used (which clearly doesn't > include all forum software that exists) amplifies two of the most > significant problems with asynchronous group communications: (1) > failing to start a new thread when one should be started, and (2) > starting a new thread when one should not. This happens on mailing > lists too, of course, but at least with email I'm entirely in control > of how I organize it, so I can re-group messages at will. Using forum > software I'm forced to accept whatever (dis)organization the > moderators or originator of the message chose. > > (If someone knows of forum software that doesn't have this problem -- > that gives every user control over how his view of the postings is > organized -- I'd be thrilled to hear about it. But if you want to > tell me on-list, start a new thread. :-) There is software that can gateway between forum views and email lists pretty much transparently but it doesn't fix any problems you might have with either view of things - like making neat threads out of a conversation that drifts over more than one topic. Some samples here: http://www.backupcentral.com/phpBB2/ -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com