Re: Replacing the ML with a forum

From: Kenneth Porter (shiva_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-04-28 21:06:18

I use two threaded mailers: Thunderbird and Mulberry. But the main value 
of threading here is being able to skip to the end of a subthread to see 
the latest answer. I can do that quickly in a forum without threading. 
But I do like the threading of Reddit and Slashdot, so a forum that 
supports that would be nice.

My biggest gripe with the mailing  list is really with my ISP's mailing 
system (Xfinity), which doesn't retry a submission to the listserv when 
the listserv's greylisting bounces the initial submission with a 
temporary failure. I have to wait a couple minutes for the bounce email 
and then re-send from my Sent folder. As I'll certainly have to do with 
this message. So I don't participate as much on this list as I do on 
others without the greylisting. A forum wouldn't be subject to this problem.

It does seem that forums get better search engine spidering than mailing 
list archives do. So it would be easier to search for answers using a 
forum.

I'd hope to see a forum with a monthly or weekly mailing of a summary of 
active threads. I get that with a few forums, notably Rocky Linux and 
Visual Tool Kit. That's a feature of mailing lists: I don't forget to 
look to see new messages. But I do filter mailing list messages to 
separate folders (using the List-ID header) so they don't clutter my 
Inbox. I just glance at the Boost folder to see what new activity is 
available as part of my regular email regimen.