A seqfan forum...

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To: seqfan <seqfan at ext.jussieu.fr>, Gordon Royle <gordon at csse.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Re:  A seqfan forum...
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Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:20:38 -0800
From: "Max A." <maxale at gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: A seqfan forum...
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On 1/11/07, N. J. A. Sloane <njas at research.att.com> wrote:
> Gordon said:
> I feel that mailing lists, except in very highly specialized cases,
> have passed their use-by date...
>
> I disagree!   I never have time to go those web sites.
> But if something comes to me in email then I read it.

I think there is a consensus solution that can behave like a forum as
well as like a mail-list.
I keep in mind services like Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/

Each participating person can decide on his own if he wants to receive
every mail going into the group via email. In this case, this will be
nothing different from a regular mail-list.
Alternatively, he can simply browse the messages via website, and
optionally subscribe to particular topics for tracking new messages
via email.
Groups may have sub-groups dedicated to certain topics. Full archive
of the group and its subgroups is always accessible for browsing via
website.

Personally, I would vote for moving SeqFan to Google Groups.

Regards,
Max

On 12/01/2007, at 9:36 AM, N. J. A. Sloane wrote:

> I disagree!   I never have time to go those web sites.
> But if something comes to me in email then I read it.

Yes, but with all due respect, you're not the problem I'm trying to  
valued members of the community who are leaving precisely because  
they do NOT want to read everything in their email. I confess that I  
too find it depressing to open my seqfan mailbox only to find 23  
messages all from two people with meaningless titles like "HELP",  
"Re: HELP", "Re: Re: HELP" and so on..

The point of a forum system is that a good one is highly configurable  
on an individual basis - so you PERSONALLY could choose the ultra- 
loose configuration of "receive an email copy of every message posted  
in every thread in every subforum". The only change for you would be  
that you would might have to POST via a web interface, though I don't  
know whether SMF (for example) has an "email-to-forum" option in  
which case you wouldn't have to change at all.

I am on a number of forums that use SMF and I choose a notification  
level of "notify me of new postings in threads that I started or to  
which I have contributed" - this way, I just get a single email  
message telling me that there are new postings that might interest  
me. Because the system knows and remembers when I last visited the  
forum, I only get one notification even if there are lots of new  
postings. When I have some time, I might go to the website and there  
is a handy link "show unread messages since your last visit".

I guess my overall point is: why not use technology to try to meet  
everyone's diverse needs, particularly now that we have some serious  
evidence that the existing system is "broken" to some extent.

>
> And I don't think Richard Guy or the other dropouts are
> going to be visiting a seqfan web forum a whole lot either!
>

Maybe we could ask them?

Cheers

Gordon

--
Associate Professor Gordon Royle
Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering
University of Western Australia

we could split, and have both:  a web forum for those
who like that sort of thing, and a plain email list 
"oldfans" for traditionalists like me.

this is called a schism, and has worked quite well
in other situations - look at the Middle East, or Ireland.

(signed)

Benedict 

Hi Folks,

Seqs, speaking platonically, exist independently
of their creators/discoverers.
I prefer the email list.

For its rich variety delivered to my desktop.
Delete works for 'noise', but what is 'noise'
for me may not be for other people.

Unsubscribe works for the disaffected
and the toxic.  The solution is in each person's
hands, literally, within the current technology.

Best Regards,
Bob