[K12OSN] 853 unread messages...

[Julius Szelagiewicz]

> Drupal handles email-to-forum or forum-to-email conversions poorly. I
> suspect other CMS/bb systems are similar in their inability to satisfy
> both
> needs.
>
> Tom
>
> At 01:45 PM 6/9/04 -0700, you wrote:
>>Having spent a bit of time searching the K12OSN archives at RH I wasnt'
>> at
>>all impressed with its searching cabapibilities. Is there a way to mirror
>>the archive so that posts to a forum would be routed to the list-serv and
>>vice versa? That way we could have the best of both worlds and maybe even
>>gain more users by having the forums available to subscribers much like
>>this list?
>>best
>>Dennis
>>
>>Tom Brown wrote:
>>>If K12OSN moves away from the listserv format, we'll probably lose
>>>members. Examples:
>>>1. Michiana Linux Users Group changed its web site from static pages and
>>>a listserv to Drupal (CMS with forums, blogs, etc.). Some members flatly
>>>refused to use the forum based, interactive site and threatened to leave
>>>the organization. Apparently a significant number of folks like the
>>>simple listserv format and don't want to browse for information or check
>>>multiple forums. So MLUG kept the listerv intact, and it is more active
>>>than the CMS forums.
>>>2. The Indiana Green Party had a one-size-fits-all listserv and divided
>>>it into two listservs (announce, discuss). The organization lost a large
>>>percentage of  its subscribers when members had to choose one, the
>>> other,
>>>or both lists. Change is a drop-out opportunity.
>>>An advantage of the one-size-fits-all listserv is keeping local
>>>searchable archives. CMS/bb systems are often full text searchable, but
>>>nothing beats an off-line archive for availability and speed -- if you
>>>have the local storage.
>>>Tom
>>>At 08:06 PM 6/9/04 +0800, you wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 18:56, John Ingleby wrote:
>>>> > Interesting... this issue just came up for me, too. I've been
>>>> running
>>>> > www.schoolforge.org.uk for a year now, which started life as a Wiki
>>>> and
>>>> > is now a PostNuke site. Over that time, from various email lists,
>>>> I've
>>>> > accumulated lots of messages with really useful information in them,
>>>> but
>>>> > never managed to develop them into Wiki pages.
>>>> >
>>>>-snip-
>>>>
>>>> > So I've been looking for a forum package that integrates with email
>>>> > lists, and FUDforum seems to meet the bill. If so, it could turn a
>>>> > mailing list into an easily searchable, up-to-date archive, to which
>>>> you
>>>> > can post either by email or web access.
>>>>-snip-
>>>>
>>>>I'm going to contribute to this discussion, not because I have a great
>>>>deal of knowledge in this area, simply because I have an interest in
>>>>knowledge systems ... and I'm an opinionated bore ;-)
>>>>
>>>>I've got a lot out of this list over the past 18mnths simply because it
>>>>_IS_ so diverse.  Someone's OT message may spark my interest and I'll
>>>>look at a web site or three that would never have come to my attention
>>>>before.  Restrict this list to specific topic groupings and I would
>>>>never have that exposure because I have too much to read already and so
>>>>little time.  On the other hand, force me to look at something and I
>>>>usually go "Oh yeh, that's got to be useful" or I just skip over it.
>>>> As
>>>>for the vexed question of accessing all that unstructured and
>>>>(seemingly) disparate information, then all I can do is repeat that
>>>>well-worn phrase, "Google is your friend".  I've actually ended up
>>>>subscribing to lists that I've never heard of after a web search led to
>>>>an answer on a mailing list.

Now my $0.02 - the list can be done right. As an example, I point you to
HPADMIN list - it is a straighforward list with a searchable archive that
really works - you get to find stuff in individual messages by any search
strings (fuzzy) imaginable. This is the best list to deal with, as you
don't need anything local to get very fast search results. Google searches
on K12OSN are rather horrible - this may account for many questions asked
again and again. So there. julius