Forums vs Mailing List

[Wayne Cox]

At 09:17 AM 12/13/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>You log in once, as long as you've got cookies enabled on your
>browser.  What if we could setup the forum using style sheets and allow
>the users to select the fonts, colors, sizes, etc?  Would it interest you
>more than?

The cookies work.  You can also override the fonts in IE; check under
"accessibility options".  Or use a browser like Opera that lets you
configure things to be displayed in a readable font!  Can I turn off all
the damn repetitive oversized graphics so many insist on sticking in their
sig lines?  I've got a fast PC and 1600Mb/sec of DSL line, and it's still
TOO FRIGGIN SLOW.

>This is where a message forum has an email list beat.  You post one message
>and anyone in the world can read it ... if they WANT to.  No cluttered
>inbox, no sifting through and deleteing tons of messages you don't want.

I think the mailing list promotes more sharing and exchange, because
everyone sees a message (or at least its subject) even if it's not a forum
or category they would have bothered to look in.  As for time, I use
filters in my email client (Eudora) to separate, categorize, and highlight
messages.  It takes me a lot less time to skim through or delete stuff I'm
not interested in, than to scrounge through the forums (feels like I'm at a
flea market!)

>Who cares if it could serve 10 trillion?  We'll never have that many users.

Have to agree there.  I like elegant technology, but the end user shouldn't
have to worry about it.  DBMS driven web sites are common place and seem to
scale just fine for many.

    -Wayne    '91 NX2k - '93 NK2k - '92 SE-R parts car