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Re: Forum



Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I have experience with Vbuliten and phpBB (php-Linux-sql). Mailing lists are superior to bulletin boards because you get the benefit of a email client to do spell checking among other things. Also, the moderator would still have to 'vet' each message before it's published so you loose the benefit of a instant web based system. Also, there is something else that you get from a mailing list that you don't get from a web forum, except I can't quite put my finger on why mailing lists are better.

I could write some kind of script to search all the pupman archives any maybe import the emails to a sql server, but again there is no real benefit in doing this as google does a pretty good job at referencing the pupman list already.

Thanks

Chris


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 2:24 AM Subject: Re: Forum


Original poster: "Mike" <induction@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Jonathon,
I like it as it is. Once a message has been cleared, it should dump out to the whole list, one shot.
The inbound messages I assume go to a buffer disk area for Terry to clear, once done it is available to send next cycle.
So, the load is on the system twice, one in , one out.
Once it is our own mailboxes, the load is off the system and it is free to be available for the next messages.
Also, it may be serving the old message base for people that research, unless that is on another machine.
The existing system reduces the need for all of us to come and connect to the server for new messages because they are already at our ISP server waiting for the next email poll (I poll every 1 minute).
The system you speak of would require everybody to connect to the server, spend time on it looking at and reading messages, making reply, etc. This would add up to a lot of connect time per person and multiply this times 1500 people.
The system would run out of bandwidth in no time, the CPU would have all those extra ports open, it would be a heavy load on the system.
I think Chip has the archive doing almost instant updates, maybe you can come in with the search mode and browse your topics that way.
If it were done as you say, one good software would have been PCBoard like in the old dial up BBS days, I used to run it and have a 2 node copy I bought long, long ago. That had a reasonable internet module available, multi conferences, file base, message packet transfer in and out, etc. I ran RBBS in many versions, too. I am sure there is better software these days.
But this still puts a load on the system for each connect, read, reply session.
The current system with the search archives is best in my opinion.
Mike



--- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 7:58 PM Subject: Forum


Original poster: Kidd6488@xxxxxxx
Alright, I'm sure this idea has been beaten into the ground, but has anyone considered switching over to web-based forum / bulliten board, as opposed to the mailing list? I love being a part of this group, but of the 50+ emails that come in a day, it seems that I am interested in only 1 or maybe 2 subjects... I would think that it would be easier for everyone, really, considering following a topic's history, the much lighter load on the servers, and the lighter load on Terry, even though the moderator would still likely have to read nearly every post. I'm not positive, but there's probably some free / open source BB software out there. Plus, there's all the other neat things, like profiles, and tracking of number of posts, etc.


What does everyone else think?

Jonathon Reinhart