Re: [Sheflug] Use of mailing lists and online forums

[Stephen Carter <carter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 9, 2008, at 12:11 AM, Robert Holland wrote:

> Following on from James Vasile's talk last week I'm trying to get a  
> feel
> for free software community collaborative tools. In particular I
> wondered how people view the advantages / disadvantages of using email
> lists compared with forums.
>
> I've done a quick search for published studies on this but couldn't  
> turn
> up anything which offered a useful summary of opinion.
>
> If anyone has any pointers or would like to share their thoughts it
> would be appreciated.
>
> Bob
> *
Some difference of opinion exists just now--One ISP I host with   
discourages all use of mail lists except as one-way announce type  
lists. He contends that although there are strong attacks against  
Forums, as spammers and pranksters work their arts against them, on  
the whole it's easier to defend Forums than to deal with the whole  
mail system with its blacklisting, as well as the efforts of spammers  
to get into the list. He says that from the ISP oriented conferences  
he goes to (here in the USA) the message he is getting is to deprecate  
mail lists, use forums.

 From the point of view of usability and user acceptance, I also  
haven't been able to find much authoritative opinion. I'd like to know  
how much the spam problem has reduced the usability of the email  
system--that is, are people so swamped in email, both spam and things  
they want to see, that forums with email announcements of new content  
are the most effective way to set  up group collaboration. The ability  
in a forum to see the whole conversation nicely laid out with indents  
and color coding  should make for a better experience--graphics,  
"normal" web navigation, all that sort of thing is available with the  
forum interface, and one would suppose it would make for a better  
experience. But where's the data showing, or refuting, this?

I wonder if the break doesn't come with a difference between technical  
users and "ordinary" users--those of us "in the business" have been  
using text based email for a long time, and are in front of our email  
all day, most every day. We don't need no stinkin' graphics....  The  
LADrupal group I belong to, however, uses the Drupal Forums and email  
notification of new posts--the membership is about equally divided  
between programers/geeks and designers. Working pretty well, so far.

Steve Carter

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