Re: [text] [review] Text formal review result

From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-06-27 20:18:32

On 2020-06-27 22:56, Vinnie Falco wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 12:40 PM Andrey Semashev via Boost
> <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> I don't mind having a forum as an additional communication platform, if
>> there is demand, but it should not replace the ML.
> 
> Mailing list sucks. People that are not subscribed can't search
> through messages, and even people who are subscribed do not have
> access to messages from before they subscribed.

There is an archive:

https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/

I can't say it is as easy to search as Google, but there is no reason to 
believe a forum search would be better. Many forums I've seen simply 
don't have search at all.

> In the case of Boost, the
> mirror is controlled by third parties and cannot be leveraged to
> generate traffic for boost.org and raise interest.

I'm not sure why boost.org traffic needs to be increased. But then 
again, I probably don't know enough about how Internet works these days.

> The barrier for joining a mailing list just to ask one question is
> high. Right from the beginning you have to wait to get approved, and
> then you need to wait for approval to post. In a forum, you can post a
> message, get the URL of the message you just posted, and then share
> that with your friends out-of-band (for example, on Slack or in a
> reddit post) and get attention with possible replies right away. You
> can't do that with a mailing list.

Well, you can, with an archive, but I admit this is probably easier with 
a forum.

> We absolutely should move to a forum on boost.org for all things,
> import as much as we can from the mailing list (as far back as
> possible) into the forum, and then cease the use of the mailing list
> forever. Anyone who emails the list should get an automated reply that
> says "Please register for the wonderful forums at boost.org" etc

As I said earlier, as a participant I would prefer to keep using the ML 
as it is simply more convenient for me.