Neal Becker Software Package..?

[jdow]

On 2012/01/07 13:29, Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 01/07/2012 01:13 PM, Reindl Harald wrote:
>> you did not understand the point
>>
>> * a mailing-list comes to you
>> * a forum not
>>
>> in this context it does not matter if you have to login
>> the point is you have to navigate somewhere to get the messages
>
> No, it's you who missed the point: if you only use your own computer to check
> the various fora, complaining about needing to log on every time becomes a straw
> man. There may be other reasons not to use them, but unless you're using public
> computers, the need to log on isn't one of them.

Seriously, Joe, you miss his point. Forget the login straw man. That is not
the issue. The issue is the clumsy navigation to get to 20 different fora
and then to each new thread you are interested in, which few forums remember
for you. Then you have to individually check new threads to see if you find
anything of interest there. The navigation, not login just navigation, often
takes longer than the reading. It takes me less time to navigate (without
considering reading time) through my LKML email folder, with its thousand(s)
messages per day than it takes me to simply navigate through any of the
forums I've ever joined unless I make a direct link to the forum pages I
was last visiting. That in itself is only a clumsy partial solution.

With email it's all staring me in the face, I can look at the subject, the
length of the thread since last visited, the list of posters, and decide if
I want to sample the thread. I sample a message and toss the thread or not.
It's quick. It's sitting there handy in email with little or no wasted time
or effort.

Forums, as implemented these days, are a triumph of cute over utility.

{^_^}