Linuxcnc.org forum

Seems like that none of the communication methods we currently have are the best for all.

Mailing lists are great if your the first one or two to answer then after that it becomes imposible to follow with the miles of quotes in each message without spending the time to read each one over and over. If you don't have an always on connection and log in and check messages once a day it is overwhelming when you get 50 - 100 messages and try and read and figure out who has answered what and which message is first etc... I usually just give up and delete them all. And as Alex said sourceforge is slower than my dial up connection so searching is a pia. And then you have to set up and subscribe to a mailing list just to get started. It took me a couple of months just to get it set up for me. Once it was going then the messages poured in every day. My e mail software has a spell checker and that is great for me Mailing lists are great for seasoned linux users with an always on connection!

Forums are great if your wanting to follow a topic from start to finish or your not used to mailing lists or the linux way of life. New posts are flagged for easy finding. New replies are flagged as well. If you have replied to a post or created one you get an e mail when anyone replies. As John pointed out if your an answer guy then you have to read each new post... but you have to do that with e mails as well. At this time you have to log on to see new posts or just leave that page up and running. I don't see a spell checker on the forum and that is bad for me . You can attach pictures to posts which sometimes helps in describing a problem or a fix.

IRC is great if your wanting live answers or wanting to chat with someone. Sometimes this is the only way to solve a complex problem or discuss an idea. We have all seen this in action... test this, got this, ok test this, got this... and on and on. This kind of help can be painfully slow on mailing lists and forums. But you have to catch someone at their keyboard to get an answer. If your not on when someone who can answer your question is at their keyboard then the question goes unanswered.

I'm just a dumb hillneck but I see advantages and disadvantages to all three. I don't see any one as the answer all for everyone. I don't think the forum should replace anything but rather complement the IRC and the mailing lists.

And the moment I hit submit everyone who replied to this thread will get an e-mail.

John

Doug,

Your liable to get a wrong answer from any place. Just because you use the mailing list, the IRC, the EMC forum, the CNCzone forum, the manuals, the man pages, the EMC wiki, google etc. doesn't mean one is more likly to give you a better answer than the other. That is a true statment that answers will come from the participants of that medium. If you really want to target the developers then you should use the emc-devel irc channel or the developers mailing list.

IMHO it is a mistake to think you can force users to use the mailing list if you don't have a forum. People who like forums will just go somewhere else like the CNCZone or other places. People who like to read will use the manuals, seasoned Linux users will use the man pages. People who like wiki will use that and on and on.

You never hear about the questions that get solved by using the manuals or the man pages or the wiki... unless there is a mistake

Anything we can do to improve the knowledge base for EMC will improve EMC.

John

jmkasunich wrote:

In other words, you are saying that we can and should have the list, the forum, the IRC channel, the wiki, etc - all at the same time. To be honest, that is my feeling as well. However, one thing we really want to avoid is dividing the EMC community up into a bunch of islands.

I think most people would agree with trying to keep the EMC community together strengthens EMC.

jmkasunich wrote:

At least some members of the board are struggling with the question: "do we shut down the list and switch to a forum". This comes from a strong desire NOT to fragment the community by having a bunch of different "gathering places".

I don't think the forum would ever replace the mailing list. At least here we can advise those folks that want to participate in elections and other things that are more logical to have on the mailing list in the Forum Announcements section. And guide them to the IRC and wiki and the documents as needed. I kind of think of the forum as an entry point for the non Linux person. Someplace comfortable and easy to navigate... then we can guide them along on the rest of the journey to Linux and EMC world.

John