On Monday 28 June 2010 00:32:31 Per Jessen wrote:
I guess that mail lists are just what people are used to, not what is better.
Let's not start that one.
Why not? It is not talk about what someone likes, but it is about choosing between medium that was not created for open communication (email) and one that was (usenet). Email works fine for groups that want to keep their communication off limits. All other stuff we have in play to make email lists open are just poor replacements for NNTP functionality. - You have to subscribe to read the messages. I don't consider email archives as substitute, as you can't simply press the button and reply. It is hard to even refer to some earlier message on the list, unlike NNTP. - You have to download messages before you can decide by the topic to read or not. Even automatic filtering happens when messages are already on your computer. - You can't move message to appropriate group Socially, mail lists are good to reinforce feeling of inner circle, which is exactly opposite from few times stated openSUSE goals. Usenet (NNTP) was always designed for the number of groups. The only problem that Usenet has is intentional openness, very much misused by spammers. I got no such problems on Novell forums, with all other advantages over email list: - No cumbersome subscription process, choose server and group and you can read - You can read any message - You can easily answer it - It downloads only headers so you can discard messages before download - Messages are stored on server; if you can access server you can read all messages from anywhere (no imap, private server, and what not) - It has powerful filtering based on header info - It is easy to refer to another post; you give subject, another user will copy and paste in a search field, and post will pop up. Try that with email. - it is post publishing moderated, so posts that don't fit are either moved or removed If we want openness, then we should not patch email service to allow what forums via NNTP had since ever, but use forums. It is simple to setup and use. Content of forums as reason not to read them is more sign that someone needs touch of isolation and exclusivity, that mail lists provide, despite all efforts to make them open. In case of openSUSE forums where moderators are doing fine job, complaining on content is lousy excuse. It is exactly what we make it. -- Regards Rajko, -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org