Linuxcnc.org forum

jimlas53 wrote:

There are folks who just want to have a working CNC system.

especially as more posts capture some of the common issues new users run into. Much easier to search this forum

I stumbled on EMC2 3 weeks ago, and i also just want to use and adjust the system. I have a little experience with linux, and as you say, forums provide a lot of info. My first thing to do when i run into any kind of problem/bug is to search google and the diverse fora. For example, thanks to fora i got my wacom tablet working under linux. In the future i'll have a working CNC system

Bas

So far, the people who are in favor of a forum are mostly commenting about how forums are good places to get their questions answered, without having to read a bunch of unrelated stuff.

That is true - a forum is very convenient for people who are ASKING questions. If you have a question, you ask it, and then come back later and look in that thread (and that thread only) for answers. You don't have to filter thruough unrelated messages, etc.

BUT - look at it from the other side - suppose you are one of the people who ANSWERS questions.... In order to answer questions, you need to read all of the threads. That is the only way to see what the questions are, and find the ones you know how to answer. Email is SO much easier for that.

Every email client makes it obvious which messages you've already read and which ones you haven't. Doing the same thing on a forum is much harder. One of the EMC2 developers (not me) has been experimenting with exactly that for several days now, and still hasn't found a decent way to do it. The closest approach has involved an RSS feed from the forum, and third-party software to convert that into emails. Simply put, YUCK.

Another advantage of email for answering questions - most email clients can notice when a new mail arrives. My computer beeped while I was typing this - I looked at my email, and there was a question about the parallel port driver. I knew the answer, so I replied, then came back here and continued typing. Total time from question to answer, maybe 5 minutes. If that same question was asked on a forum, I wouldn't see it unless I decided to sit down and spend 15 minutes (or an hour, or whatever it takes) to go through all the new posts.

So - a forum is easy for the people who want to ask questions, but hard for the ones who answer questions. If it is too hard, the answer people might not hang around in the forum much, and there won't be very many answers.

Regards,

John Kasunich

True, you have a point from the answering side.
How do you gather related questions in the archives or mail? Say i want to use EMC, but sometimes i have a question. The first thing i look for is if someone already got an answer for that same question. So i don't bother the answerers with the same question for the 10'th time.
I'm not used with mailinglists, i tried to search thru the archives, but couldn't find the answer.

Regards,
Bas

I agree the sourceforge archives are pretty bad to be searched.
There is also a copy of the archive at gmane , and a search tab at the bottom.
Also usually, when I want to seach for something I basicly use google search. Quite often the answer is in the wiki, or in the IRC logs, or in the online documentation.

PS: I also agree that the "ASKING" users are served a bit better by a forum, and I also use RSS to keep track of new posts, which is a bit of a pita.

Regards,
Alex

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

John, I understand what you're saying, and I can appreciate the difficulty a forum might represent. However, one of the greatest benefits of forums is that the answers come from other forum participants, not always the developers or the few who are the most knowledgeable. Obviously there is the potential to get incorrect information from another user, but most of the time that is corrected by someone else.
If I had a particularly sticky question I wouldn't hesitate to use the mailing list, but I might also post it on the forum, just to help increase the knowledge base.

-Doug