[Strawbale]Mailing list

[Stewart Hargrave]

On 6 Mar 2005 at 13:38, Simon Blackbourn wrote:

> We currently have 276 people on this email list, which I think speaks
> volumes for its success (we started off with just 12 people five years
> ago!!). 

And thanks are due to everyone who makes it work. 

> I agree that a forum is a very good idea, but I would be worried that
> it would isolate many people on the list. The beauty of the email list
> is that the discussions come to you, direct into your inbox. You don't
> have to go find the discussion - i.e. log on, go to a website, read
> the list of topics being discussed, follow the links, etc.

Last year someone set up a strawbale web forum and publicised it on this list. A  
few of us posted to it, and it had a promising start, but despite his efforts it got  
very little use. After several months of total inactivity it was closed down. So  
anyone setting up another one would need to consider how a new forum could be  
made more successful. 

There is also a Yahoo Group (SB-r-us), but it is mostly aimed at America. There  
may be other groups and lists too.   

I would actually prefer a Usenet news group, but realise these are viewed as  
being a little old fashioned, and can be confusing to newcomers (and I've no idea  
how to set one up - but might be interested in finding out if there was enough  
interest). 

Personally, I find web-based forums and message boards rather awkward to use,  
especially navigating through a thread, and responding to it. I may be doing it  
wrong, but I haven't fathomed out how they make things easier. I like the way you  
can have different 'areas' on the forum for different things to talk about, but  
actually I prefer to read and write messages from my email client or newsreader,  
rather than on a web page.   

-- 
Stewart H.