[
Date Prev][
Date Next] [
Thread Prev][
Thread Next]
[
Date Index][
Thread Index][
Author Index]
Re: Message Board
Matthew,
> I personally find message boards so much more conveinent than mailing
> lists.
I find quite the reverse is true. Message boards are OK for stuff like
product support where you don't need to follow a conversation - just ask
a question, get an answer and get out. But they rarely have decent
threading, making it impossible to know who is saying what to whom. And,
since most web-boards use some sort of time-based cookie arrangement for
marking posts read or unread, you never can be sure whether you haven't
missed an important message or not. Even worse is the fact that you have
to manually go out and fetch each and every message yourself - perhaps
from half a dozen or more different boards, each with their own
interface and way of working. This is extremely ineffective. It takes me
the same time to skim through a couple of dozen web-board messages as it
does to skim a couple of hundred emails ...
With mailing lists all my messages come to me automatically without
having to lift a finger. My mail app sorts them into nicely threaded
folders for me to read at my leisure - presented in a consistent and
controllable interface no matter where the messages come from. And I'm
certain I have all the messages a thread for further reference. In fact
I have in my current messagebase every email and news message I've sent
or received since 1996! It's a goldmine of information on a variety of
subjects that would be impossible to assimilate in any other way.
--
Ian Petersen