On Jun 11, 2006, at 3:56 PM, Gian Paolo Mureddu wrote:

I totally agree, after all, it is precisely *graphics* software we are

talking about, not old-fashioned Usenet text-only discussions... Plus

the whole thing about HTML posting... So you CAN use your favorite mail

software, just not your favorite *formatting*, some of the archaic

Netiquette rules seem to be way over the board nowadays (but as long as

people will still use CLI based readers, I guess there's not much we can

do anyways).


I for one do appreciate my e-mail software, but also reckon its

limitations, while it easily manages the amount of traffic of several

mailing lists, I also like (very much) the convenience of a web-forum

interface... Balance between the two should be attainable, like the

proposed NNTP backends. I'd lean forward for a forum, though.


Personally, I find the web interfaces the opposite for me. They slow things down, get in the way, and even are bad for slow connections.

And as far as "archaic Netiquette" rules go... that's just a misconception. For example, I'd used the POV-Ray newsgroups at least since 1998. That was a good example of an art-based project with good organization of binaries of different types, with threads and robust discussions for each. There are many others, but having personally seen this problem solved eight years ago makes me fairly sure it can be solved today.  :-)

Also... even long before that there were many *.binaries newsgroup all over the 'Net. All that's needed is a little organization and communication, not new tech.



Anyway, as far as the technical end of things goes.... it's often just as easy to have a "web forum" front end on a private newsgroup. But what I've seen is that the newsgroup interface is often more convenient. However, the web interface is often handy for the casual poster or "drive-by" newbie. My experience is about that as with webmail versus a mail or messaging client. Webmail interfaces are OK, and often do most of what I want, but for my heavy use I'll pick a "real" mail client whenever possible. Even Netscape 4.x was a good newsgroup client.