[Talk-GB] Forum (was OSM Analysis New Data and bot)

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Graham Stewart wrote:
> I'm of the opinion that if you want to build a strong community then it 
> helps to gather everyone in the same place.

The segmentation is actually desirable; it is correct that the same 
thing is discussed in several different groups but that's just the same 
as with pub meetups.

If you don't like email and don't like the existing forum, then set up a 
forum that you like and use that. There's more than enough users to fill 
all of these media and we can't all be in the same place anyway. Please 
just don't expect me to use a forum to communicate. Forums have all 
these things like

> polls, sticky threads, consistent 
> formatting, image posting, moderators, spellcheckers, swear filters.

that I dislike.

> Most forums provide email notifications if that's what you really prefer.
> Or it could provide an RSS feed - either for the entire forum or just 
> for threads you are watching.

I have a RSS feed for our current forum and it does not seem to work 
very well. It only occasionally grabs new messages and cannot handle 
threading properly - unless of course I subscribe to individual threads 
but who would do such a thing. And when I want to send a reply, I have 
to log in to a web page first.

> Sorry Tom, but you've clearly used some awful forums.
> A good organised forum should be faster and easier than trawling through 
> email.

I think the comparison is skewed for you because you use a slightly 
low-end webmailer. So *you* have to fire up a browser anyway, whereas I 
don't use a browser to read my email, and don't want to use a browser to 
read a forum either. My mail program even does cursor keys so I can have 
both hands on the keyboard.

> Anyway, let's not get carried away. My original comment was just a throw 
> away aside.

Yes, but one suitable to insult people who actually prefer mailing lists.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"