Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: Forums... again

On 04/29/2011 05:54 PM, Robert Holtzman wrote:
> I don't know what lists you have seen but I've seen quite a number of
> looong threads with highly involved posts and equally involved replies.
> IMO forums, texting, and twitter appeal to younger users with their
> shorter attention spans.
>
> Also, the quality of the answers/help is usually greater on lists than
> in forums.
>
> Did it ever occur to you that this 25(?) year old technology is good enough
> to have survived that long?
The reason that you get long threads and highly involved posts in 
mailing lists is that mailing lists attract more savvy users. The hoi 
polloi usually don't use them, except to complain about how difficult it 
is to unsubscribe (see the LibreOffice-Users list). Ditto for why 
answers are often better. You get a better signal-to-noise ratio and the 
people asking the questions are on average better at it, which is always 
an aid to getting better help.

If LibreOffice merely wants to be a little niche project for open source 
purists, then mailing list-only makes sense. If they want to replace 
OpenOffice.org, then that won't do. You need both.

--
Isaac Hummel
isaac@daedaleus.com
http://daedaleus.isaachummel.com


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