Hello,

I like mailing lists more than forums. But I think most "normal" computer users have a different view. That's why I like the idea of a wine forum.

n0dalus wrote: 
On 4/22/06, Paul <subsolar@subsolar.com> wrote:
  
I don't like web interfaces!

No seriously, I don't have the time to spend going out and monitoring a
dozen forums.  I find mail lists much more convenient ... the
information comes to me, I don't have to go to the information.

    

We could always make a web interface to the mailing list.
Some ideas:
- Threads get shown in usual bulletin board style
- Moderators can move threads from the main area to other sections.
Threads can be created by users directly in user-writable sections
- When users signup for an account it could be linked with a
username@wineusers.com or similar address
- When users post to a thread or create a thread, an email is sent
from their wine-managed email account to the list, and the post shows
up in the board
- When someone replies privately to a user without CC'ing the list,
the message is sent to their private inbox
- Users on the forum can send messages to other users in a similar fashion
- Reply notifications can be configured by the user to be sent to
their personal address
- Posts are all plain text, with optional attachments (some reasonable
limits apply)

Since a huge number of the features usually provided by forums are not
needed, this is probably an easier task than it might seem.

n0dalus.
The idea is good. But I think that might overload the wine-users mailing list. A forum would have more traffic than the mailing list currently has. That's a positive thing but the mailing list can become IMHO unusable if it gets to many mails, let's say around 100/day? Wine is certainly a big project which has many users so I don't thing this number is too exaggerated. It would be bad if the wine-users mailing list dies because no one posts to it but in contrast it wouldn't be better if it get's too much traffic. So let the users decide whether they want a mailing list or a forum, or both. I am just talking about wine-users and offering another option ;-)   

I think that independent forum and mailing list wouldn't spread the information more than it is already. The forum would be able to collect wine-related discussions which now takes place on different forums across the Internet. Even if you hate forums you might be interested that there is only one with wine-related discussions in it.
To collect information neither a forum nor a mailing list is ideal. That's the reason for a bug tracker and the AppDB, isn't it?
And there are different types of information:
-> bugs in wine
-> missing features
-> distribution specific wine problems
-> user with wine/distribution/linux problems
-> ...
The first and the second one should be interesting for developers, the other things can be solved with the help of other users. It is easier for users to post and help each other if they have a "community" which a forum seems to provide them. And often you can not decide on the first look, whether it's a bug or just a handling problem.
You can be selective in a forum (or should I better say the forum selects for you?) by choosing the sub-forum you enter. Therefore the structure of the forum is one important thing, which should be carefully thought of before starting a forum. Could be something like this:

- applications (how to get the app work, open a thread only if you know how to get the app working)
--- games
---> Diablo 2
---> The Settlers 3
--- office
---> Adobe Photoshop
---> MS Office 2000
- distribution specific problems (everything that isn't a bug in wine, but can be tricky for the users of a specific distribution)
---> Debian-based
---> SuSE
---> Gentoo
- general questions/problems (did someone try to get the app blabla working? I experience the problem blub, can somebody help me?)
- wine philosophie (about the use of wine and why it is important (user comments), just a little bit of talk, but that's the live in a forum ;) )

IMHO it would be very useful for wine and for the users to get this forum as a "connection". An unofficial wine forum would be a bad solution because it would seperate two things which belong together (program/users). But if that's the only choice I would support it. it's better if things get connected (AppDB, bugtracker, forum, ML, etc.). A seperation of forum and wine-hq would make this more difficult. The more the things get integrated, the more useful they are and can be automated (i.e. link threads with bug entries, etc.) Currently I am busy (next week exams+have to write a program) otherwise I would see whether I could program an example how I would do it. Also I'd like to see what wine doors does (if I remembered it correctly, he would like things in the AppDB to change?)

However if this topic is still actual when I'll have more time, I am going to put more effort into it :-)


Greetings KGJ