Forum vs mailing list
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Hi there,
I just browsed through my email inbox and I couldn't noticing an email from alan walters alan@aillweecave.ie.Now there is not much email in the mailig lists. I am disappointed about
this change. Felt I ad to voice my concern. I follow pfsense from a
development point of view. I know forums are great for archiving but
very annoying for people that just want to stay up to date.Sorry for the gripe but felt it was nessercery.
I hope Alan doesn't mind me commenting on his email but since it's public domain I guess it's ok.
I am as much concerned with this issue as Alan is.
And I think the pfSense team now has much more work on multiple fronts (emails and forum) than they used to, thus less time for bug fixing and development.
So this leads me to my original question, which is: should we really keep the mailing list now that we have the forum?
I mean, in time the forum will most probably have a feature so that we can press a link and see the subject of the last 10, 20, 30, xxx posts so that we can all keep up to date on what's going on with pfSense development.
Plus the website can be feed with such info and we would just refresh that web page everyday to keep up to date.
With the forum and with a team of experienced Mods we can keep every post in the right place.
This way if someone comes in and opens a new topic with the same (let's say…) possible bug we will just point him/her to the original topic ;).
Soo....do you think we should keep the mailing list?
I'm not talking about closing it right now, I mean, let's give it some more time.
But should we notice that the amount of mails is really low and that these tend to have the same subject as other posts here in the forum, do you think it would be advisable to close the mailing list?
Just a thought and please note that this is just an oppinion, my honest oppinion.
Which means I may be completely wrong here ;).
Cheers/alan@aillweecave.ie -
I think Chris' post on the mailling list is perfectly apt. Neither venue is going away, nor should it.
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I think both have there strengths and weaknesses. Personally I prefer forums but that's mainly because I regularly check a half dozen forums a couple times a day anyway but some of my friends like mailing lists and find forums to hard to keep up.
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http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?action=unread
You should find ths link on top in the "USER INFO" box. (after login)
It also contains "Show new replies to your posts"
Hope this helps.
Also after you log in you shoud see the pfsense icon on the far left beeing either greyed out or not, if it's not greyed out it mens there are new posts in the category that hs not been read. And once the category is open you should see a small "NEW" icon next to each thread that has new posts in it.
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I read the mailing lists but I don't really feel very confident to reply or set it up to recieve it via email. I mean it's probably not that hard, it just seems old fashioned to me. Those old guys just need to get with the times and learn how to use forums. I just find it so much easier to track information that I need to access on forums without having to dig through all sorts of other stuff I don't understand.
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I read the mailing lists but I don't really feel very confident to reply or set it up to recieve it via email. I mean it's probably not that hard, it just seems old fashioned to me. Those old guys just need to get with the times and learn how to use forums. I just find it so much easier to track information that I need to access on forums without having to dig through all sorts of other stuff I don't understand.
ahahahaha, what's old is new again. Can anyone say BBS? I sure can ;-P
–Bill
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@Isf:
You should find ths link on top in the "USER INFO" box. (after login)
It also contains "Show new replies to your posts"
Hope this helps.
Also after you log in you shoud see the pfsense icon on the far left beeing either greyed out or not, if it's not greyed out it mens there are new posts in the category that hs not been read. And once the category is open you should see a small "NEW" icon next to each thread that has new posts in it.I know how to use forums and I also do know how SMF works.
That's some good tips for newcomers, though :).ahahahaha, what's old is new again. Can anyone say BBS? I sure can ;-P
Sure I can spell BBS :P.
I used logon to a couple of BBS per day before Internet got here ;). -
I read the mailing lists but I don't really feel very confident to reply or set it up to recieve it via email. I mean it's probably not that hard, it just seems old fashioned to me. Those old guys just need to get with the times and learn how to use forums. I just find it so much easier to track information that I need to access on forums without having to dig through all sorts of other stuff I don't understand.
ahahahaha, what's old is new again. Can anyone say BBS? I sure can ;-P
–Bill
Hey I used BBS's but I avoided mailing lists :P.
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Mailing lists are a bit of a pain. I think everything should be on the forums.
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I think the forum is the best format as well. I avoid mailing lists like the plague.
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Mailing lists are a bit of a pain. I think everything should be on the forums.
What you think is different from what others think. A forum allows people to be "loose" whereas a mailing list makes you think twice before blabbering. Not saying your blabeering, just pointing out the differences that I have noticed.