There are many folks that are transient in terms of interests as
evidenced by the serial nature of their endeavors and defunct projects
(although I post occasionally, I prefer to contribute in other ways;
e.g. occasional stray payments via paypal, helping users offline,
etc.). It does seem that a web forum, whether it is their ease of
access or their churn in volunteer moderators or their proprietary
software (which becomes a prison for content), generally reduces the
quality of the information exchange. Although I believe a better search
interface would be a valuable tool to the mailing list as well as a a
web-based forum (with RSS support, etc.) for "newbies", most users like
the fact that one can use a program or service (Thunderbird, Outlook,
Gmail, etc.) that they are comfortable with to perform rather simple
searches to watch topics in which they are interested. All without
having to worry about some poorly written SQL queries executed by a
program running on under powered servers resting in the cloud that you
have to go through layers (e.g. advanced search prompts, CAPTCHA, etc.)
to do something that should only take a few seconds.
What might be most useful is to author a more polished introduction
(newbie) guide. Although I don't have the time now to it myself, I
would be willing to sponsor (i.e. fund) it so that more people are
introduced to FS.
-metik
Ben Langfeld wrote:
> There may be a forum, but such a thing cannot be expected to succeed
> if there's competition with an already established list. Such a thing
> would have to replace the mailing list to succeed. I believe this
> would help the FreeSWITCH effort amongst newer users and lead to much
> faster growth. The barrier to entry of a mailing list is a tad too
> high for some since it presents an impression, justified or not, that
> the list is where the elite hang out and is off-limits for newbies,
> whereas with a tidier forum setup that would allow for a "Newbies
> Corner" might avoid this. Mailing lists are showing their age these
> days - as demonstrated by the difficulty in responding to this on
> digest mode - I have to strip away every other thread first.
>
> I'm convinced that a full shift to newer, better organised and more
> friendly technology would only be a good thing for the FreeSWITCH
> project. Does anyone agree, or am I out on my own on this one?
>
> Regards,
> Ben Langfeld
>
> Wave > Email
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 12:11 AM,
> <freeswitch-users-request@lists.freeswitch.org
> <mailto:freeswitch-users-request@lists.freeswitch.org>> wrote:
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Michael S Collins <msc@freeswitch.org
> <mailto:freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org>>
> Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:54:15 -0700
> Subject: Re: [Freeswitch-users] FreeSWITCH Mailing List - Why not
> a forum?
> There *IS* a forum. A volunteer set it up a few years ago and
> promised to maintain it. The fact that you can't find it is proof
> positive that a forum just isn't the best choice for this
> particular online community. I'd say the nabble site is your best
> option.
>
> -MC
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Mar 27, 2010, at 4:51 AM, William Suffill
> <william.suffill@gmail.com <mailto:william.suffill@gmail.com>> wrote:>> <http://Gmane.org>,nabble.com <http://nabble.com>)
>
>> It's been brought up before. I don't recall exactly all the +/-
>> discussed but there are some alternatives for the user depending
>> on their preference. Digest can get a bit annoying in high
>> volume. The list is archived in various places (Gmane.org
>>>> <mailto:freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org>* (more options
>> Nabble does provide a forum style interface to the current list
>> if you rather follow it that way.
>> http://n2.nabble.com/freeswitch-users-f2379917.html
>> "This forum is an archive for the mailing list:
>> *freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org
>> <http://n2.nabble.com/mailing_list/MailingListOptions.jtp?forum=2379917>)
>> Messages posted here will be sent to this mailing list.">> <mailto:FreeSWITCH-users@lists.freeswitch.org>
>>
>> -- W
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