[Gllug] GLLUG Newsletter - 19/06/06

[John G Walker]

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:44:07 +0100 "Geo." <caparo.g at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday 20 June 2006 09:17, Ryland, Peter wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-06-19 at 19:25 +0100, John G Walker wrote:
> > > Wouldn't this be more useful if it was a message board-style forum
> > > rather than an email-based one? The collective wisdom of
> > > participants would be laid before newcomers, questions would only
> > > have to be asked and answered once, and people may become
> > > inspired by things written months before. Furthermore, you could
> > > go away and think about things, less pressure to have to respond
> > > instantly.
 
>  It is a nice theory but in practice it does not work quite so well.I
> belong to a number of Biker lists that are Forums and the amount of
> "fluff" that is there stored is horrendous. The newbies still ask the
> same questions month in month out because being new they sign on and
> ask without ever searching (mostly they have not a clue how to !) Ok
> this is a Computer wise list but the newbies are not so it may be
> slightly better. 

This is the case with every forum, regardless of format. How much
repetition depends on the abilities of the administrator(s)
and the collective discipline of the members> I would suggest - without
having investigated the matter to any great depth, I confess - that a
biker forum would have a larger proportion of casual drop-in posters
than one devoted to learning Python, and so would have a lesser degree
of collective discipline. The problem of fluff would thus not be so
great.

>The other thing is Forums take up time in great
> chunks, where as mail I can read between other things and delete /
> file as I go which to me is superb !
> 

That's my point. There are two sorts of forum - those where you want to
react to posts as you go along and those where you want to think about
things, re-read the thread, etc before perhaps replying. The first type
fits an email format, the second a web format. 

A "learn Python" forum belongs, IMHO, in the second category. You'd
want to spend time trying things, investigating etc before coming to a
conclusion about the contents of a post. You'll want to devote a chunk
of time to it, not slip it casually,

-- 
 All the best,
 John
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