[AG-TECH] AG Developers mailing list available

[kathy gill]

> On 26/05/2005, at 3:33 AM, Brian Corrie wrote:
>> I am not sure that that is the best solution... I personally am not  
>> terribly good at going to forum's to check discussion groups. I  think 
>> that there are others like me in that regard. Thus relying  just on 
>> the portal may reduce the involvement of some people.

Darran Edmundson wrote:
> I agree fully.  I'm a mailing list person, going to web forums only  
> infrequently in search of solutions to specific problems.  
SNIP

> web forums ... typically don't have the  "reply and quote everything"
> mentality of mailing lists, sig files, header and footer cruft, etc.

This is an interesting sociological discussion ...and one that I find 
fascinating since it is occurring in what I think of as a very 
"geeky/techy" mailing list.

This is the first "tech" list I've participated in where "bottom 
posting" and "snipping quoted material" netiquette is not the list norm.

Do we blame the software (my interpretation of the above snippet) or is 
this a "user" issue? Because I don't think of this complaint as 
reflecting a "mentality of mailing lists" -- quite the opposite! Most 
mailing lists that I participate on do *not* have this problem. Perhaps 
it's because list norms are explicit? It's certainly not because we all 
use Pine!

One of my problems with web forums is that they don't seem to quote "by 
default" and thus I have waded through many *useless* postings because 
they contain no context. I'm not faulting the software ... per se ... 
only noting that the tool contributes to an equal but opposite problem.


Kathy

-- 

Kathy E. Gill
Department of Communication
Digital Media Master's Degree Program
University of Washington
Box 353740 Seattle WA 98195 USA
http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/