On 6/1/07, MenTaLguY <mental@...32...> wrote:
On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:03:06 +0000 (UTC), Jim Henderson <hendersj@...155...> wrote:
Hackers blow off questions that are inappropriately targeted in order to try to protect their communications channels from being drowned in irrelevance. You don't want this to happen to you.
Although this isn't really directly related to your point, one of the issues with forums is that, while most of the Inkscape developers do read the inkscape-user mailing list, most of us aren't able to keep up with forums.
I think that the mailing lists are doing an excellent job on the techinical side, but they arent generating a users community in terms of art particularly well. I dont think that having all the devs reading all the forum is necessary for a forum once we start talking about it in the context of art rather than technical support. I think if they were done right, and kept pretty focused, then forums could be a good way to grow the creative aspect of the community, and could help tie together and stimulate some of the excellent work that has been going on with the youtube screencast tutorials etc. Very much feel they should be something that compiments the mailing list rather than replaces, as I'd see them performing a dfferent role.
That's the main reason I'd prefer the "official" Inkscape forum to be an interface to the mailing list over other approaches, even though I certainly do appreciate the benefits of "real" forums (e.g. being able to post inline images as examples, more robust threading, etc.).
-mental