Bill Jonas said:
> On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 01:26:48AM -0700, Terry Lynch wrote:
>> P.S.  Off topic, but I am wondering why PLUG communicates in this, at
>> least imho, archaic and inefficient manner.
>
> You're right, email is *so* old-fashioned. ;-)
>
>> Why not a forum?

Email serves the majority of the members very well.  I agree with all of
the reasons that Bill proferred.

I would ask you, Terry, why do you want a forum?  In what ways is an email
list "archaic and inefficient" when compared to a forum?  Please elaborate
on your reasons for preferring a forum over an email list.  They may be
good ones.  Sell it to us.

>> Are the administration/resources not available?
>
> I don't think that it would really take many more resources for a forum,
> other than the initial setup.  I suppose that if it were preferred, the
> Nuke software on the main PLUG web site could be used for this purpose.

If the group really wants a forum, we can make one.

However, I will point out as a "market test" that the current article
submission and posting process on the current PLUG web site is close to
how a forum works already.  Once the initial article is moderated and
posted, comments can be added by any logged in user.  But even with such
an easy process very few people besides myself submit articles to the PLUG
web site, other than job announcements.  And, very few people comment on
the stories that are posted even though comments do not require
moderation.

PLUG discussions are almost always email list centric for historical
reasons (that's the way it has been) and for preference reasons (that's
the way people want it, I think).  I have even posted web site articles
asking for discussion with very few, if any, comments resulting.

>> Personally I'd much prefer a forum but maybe that's just me...
>
> Have you considered starting one?  I'm being serious.  I would imagine

Bill is right.  You are, infact, welcome to start one.  We would link to
it from the current web site and, if it proves popular, see about
incorporating it on the main site.

I am not finding it in the email list archive but I recall a PLUG member
setting up a forum site a couple of years ago.  It was there originally to
post member reviews of different Linux Distributions but was expandable to
additional topics.  It was used for about a month and faded away.  You may
be successful this time, however.

Alan



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