[simpits-tech] Offtopic posts...

[James Hallows]

At 09:54 01/01/03 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm very usenet oriented and still think this list would have been great on
>Gene's
>newserver he had running, once folks got a newsreader up and running they
>would have loved the threading, heck he could have even opened a group for
>attachments.
>Gene, if you want to get the server running again, I could get a tutorial up
>for the folks who wanted to venture into it.


Much as I like newsgroups, web based forums I think offer more features. 
Being able to be notified when someone posts in a thread you're interested 
in, being able to ignore OT threads, ease of use (everyone has a working 
browser), not having your e-mail filled with posts that aren't of interest 
to you, being able to embed images within your posts, being able to save 
the pages easily, etc. etc. I feel there's a whole host of reasons why 
perhaps a well structured group of forums would be beneficial. It's also 
easier then for new people to read, join and participate in.

I've left the group before because of the volume of e-mail traffic it 
generated, and also for some reason some server somewhere has a hiccup 
resulting in the sending out of the same messages repeatedly sometimes, 
which was a real problem for me when I was on a modem on top of my 
Thrustmaster traffic. As I'm exploring panel electronics and programming, 
it would be nice to be able to browse a webforum containing the posts over 
the last year picking out the pertinent threads of interest to me. I 
couldn't imagine for example what the Cougar World forums would be like as 
a single e-mail based group. Granted - it obviously sees a lot more 
traffic, but the benefits of having that as forums are fairly evident. 
Given that there are many sites which offer to host forums for nominal 
charges, perhaps this might be something the group would benefit from.

Just some New Year's thoughts ;)

Have a great year all!

James