[Haskell-cafe] Re: Haskell web forum

[Kurt Hutchinson]

On 9/21/06, Misha Aizatulin <avatar at hot.ee> wrote:
>   My concern about introducing a web forum would be that it is yet
> another place I have to search every time I need information (besides
> the haskell report, compiler docs and tracker, 2 wikis and the mailing
> lists :)

That probably speaks to an effort for better organization of the
information rather than banning a way to create more.

>   So setting up a web forum would only be good if it can do something a
> mailing list cannot do.

Well there's one thing that a web forum can do that a mailing list can
never do, which is provide a mechanism for those who like web forums
better than mailing lists. How important that is really depends on how
many people would rather use a web forum than a mailing list. Many of
the responses so far have decried web forums in preference to mailing
lists, but this is, after all, a mailing list.

> - searchability. I wouldn't agree - I can download the whole contents of
> a mailing list from gmane and search it in my mail client - goes way
> faster than in a forum.

A similar mechanism could be implemented for a web forum. The data is
just sitting in a database, after all. An format for easy downloading
and searching would probably not be difficult.

I personally don't care either way. I'm happy with the mailing list.
But I know of many people that do prefer web forums, and they seem to
be perceived as a lower barrier to entry, even if that isn't actually
true. I would probably read both if both existed.

Kurt