On 6/2/07, Jon A. Cruz <jon@...204...> wrote:
On Jun 1, 2007, at 10:15 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
The POV-Ray community model is another great example of how this type of
thing can (and should) work - they've got a web interface to an NNTP
server; they've got binaries groups where inline image posting is
permitted (though it's not a hard enforcement in other groups - I'm not
sure why people think NNTP can't handle inline images, it certainly
can). news.povray.org is usable both with a news reader as well as the
web interface - those who might benefit from seeing how someone else has
set this up might wander over and have a look. I'm definitely a strong supporter of this, and second the idea of POV-Ray as a good example.
In fact once you remove the multi-server distribution (as POV-Ray does, since their groups are private), it does boil down to being about the technical equivalent of a mailing list. The limitations people see, I believe, arise from shortcomings in the mail software they use. I happen to get a very nice, threaded view of the inkscape mailing lists, in-line images and all, since I'm using a decent client (Apple's mail app), but for those others a pass through NNTP and a front-end like POV-Ray has could be very useful.
*But* I think the main goal is to not fragment the different discussion groups. If some people participate in a given discussion via mail, and some via NNTP and some via a web front-end, but all are discussing things together then we gain the most. It is in artificially splitting a discussion just to allow for different access methods that we would end up losing.
at the end of the day, of all the art sites I've come across, not one of them uses a mailing list as an interface, I know every time we have this discussion y'all bring up the POVray site, but to my eyes its rather like how I found POVray itself, technically capable of doing the job but not exactly user friendly or pretty. you cant sticky a post full of tutorials on a mail list, you cant go back and edit so that the first post always has the latest version of your wip. Fundamentally tho theres a mindset involved. I dont know about other people but I wouldnt make the kind of short, looks good comments in response to an email that I might drop on a forum. Deviantart is a good step in the right direction in terms of art community, except its very much set up to show off finished peices, and unless you put a watch on everyone in the community then you have to proactively look for things to comment on. If you had a decent forum then that wouldnt be the case. I think something with a Gallery section and a WIP section that encouraged some display and gave a focal point for the teaching side of the community could be a good thing.
Just my 2c
Sim