I see two differing opinions here, 1: the puritan view, the one that feels injured that skunkworks has been watered down to something irrecognizable and as such seeks radical measures to restore that by creating a mechanism that ensures only meaningful content is posted. 2: the comfort zone view that is gotten so used to the current setup that the moving will require some inertia. Whichever you belong to, there are two possible actions with two possible outcomes: a) retaining the current setup and working on a "skunkworks puritans" kind of setup where "sane" and meaningful dialogue is conducted. Leaving the current mailing list setup to wither and die in its own vomit. (yeah, ive always wanted to say that). b) Shock therapy, erasing skunkworks and asking members to move, or force-migrating them to some other platform like stack overflow, then whoever is uncomfortable can figure out what to do himself. The possible outcomes are i ) A lean membership contributing skunks only dialogue. ii) two groups possibly representing a class divide between the can dos and the cant dos (when all thats being talked about is hard core tech, some will naturally keep quiet since they don't have much to say). 1 + a) => i 1 + b) => i 2 + a) =>ii 2 + b =>i According to me, it all depends on what outcome we hope to achieve. On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Jonas | Lamu Software < jonas@lamusoftware.com> wrote:
Since there is a demand for keeping the list as it is as well as making it available on the web the only way is to keep the existing mailing list function as I see it.
This means the web app must also be able to:
1. Subscribing to each new post for the whole web app No problem (even for phpbb there is a hack at http://www.phpbbhacks.com/)
2. Posting by email in reply to a subscription email Harder. Would require a specific id in the mail subject to be able to put the response to the right thread. Also would require some kind of API for the web app for posting unless hacking db directly.
3. New post from email Really hard to get into the right category. Maybe just put in a general category. The created thread could then be moved by an admin to the correct category.
Once the last two points are solved the switch could be done. Mailing list for those who want that, web for those who want that :)
Sure it would be nice with a Stackoverflow like app but I would be very happy with just a working forum as it would be a great improvement in terms of how I use the list.
Maybe just start with a free forum software (installation time 1 hour), install add-on for 1. and write the code for 2,3. Would probably be able to be up within two weeks including testing.
When the simple forum app has been up for a while it would be easy to evaluate further development ideas and improvements.
I may sound boring, negative, old or all that but "Think big - Start small" is often a good way to get things done :)
On 07/27/2010 06:04 PM, Oliver Ndegwa wrote:
@Aki. I totally agree with you 100% but will need to find a proper change management method that will work for everyone and that will ensure we maintain the trend that has taken long time and effort and loyalty to build.
Have you seen how people react when they find no mail from skunkies in a day.. That speaks volumes of what to expect.if they were to be abandoned.
However, where there is a will there is a way. lets find it..
Oliver
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