Aye caramba! We're still on about this forum thing? Well... here are my two cents:

Mailing list: It has the advantage of grouping everything together, but it's bad at fostering the "artistic" side because of its limited multimedia support and besides, lots of people find mailing lists to be hard to navigate. And bland. XD

Wiki: I'm under the impression that wikis would not be the best for fostering an "interactive" community, but I admit I'm biased because I rarely use wikis except to find information (and not to interact with other people).

Povray: I have even Less idea how Povray's community works. After the first hour spent over the manual (time needed to get how to get a sphere in Povray), I had decided that it was easier to draw people manually. XP

Galleries: Opencanvas, as I've previously said, managed to get much exposure thanks to its art-based community, but this would not likely be appropriate for Inkscape. However, I think it would be nice if Open Clipart took on a more advanced gallery interface, a bit like Deviantart and co: Creative Common or not, someone who registers would be more likely to contribute if they were filling up "their" gallery (and can get feedback on top of that), and tagging would allow easing search and browsing. There could be entire downloadable "collections" too. On top of that, if it has a big "We recommend Inkscape" (or something in those lines) at the front, so much the better for Inkscape's visibility.

No offense, but, I currently do not "get" Open Clipart's interface at all. XD In Deviantart and co by contrast, people browse and submit work practically without thinking.

Blogs: Actually, I'd see a few advantages to a blog-based community. How many of you know how blog Communities work? Here's an example from the top of my head: http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial

If an Inkscape livejournal community were to be made for example, it'd present the following advantages: - it's as cohesive as mailing lists, really. You only have to check one place. - and for peple who already have their livejournal accounts, when they join, the community posts appear on their "Friends" list, so it's even more accessible to them - there are quite a number of people with their own blogs etc, so they'd be able to join "easily" - people can post questions, tutorials, thoughts and tips much like on the mailing list, albeit with a slightly nicer interface that allows images and such - either the users or a moderator would help "tag" the entries for easy future reference from the "Favorites" section or the "Tutorials (compilation)" section or the "Frequently asked questions" section, all easily accesible from the left bar - the only thing really is that unlike forums, threads can't be "bumped", but with the tagging it shouldn't be much problem. Besides, how often do "very old" topics resurface, anyway? Also, you'd have to revisit a topic to see any new comments, unless you're the one who started it. In practice though, it's not That much a hassle. - some people might also feel a certain reluctance to creating an account, but it's not much more work than signing up to a mailing list or to a forum, really.

It's basically a mailing list's cohesiveness with many of a forum's presentation. I'm subscribed to both a few forums and a few livejournal communities of the similar categories, and livejournal communities (I admit, I know little of Blogspot and others) are indeed more cohesive and intimate so to say. Forums are better when the size of the community goes over the top, but blogs can be a good starter.

Of course, I'm biased towards something I'm familiar with, but maybe the above explains a few things.

In the future, I'd also suggest a more advanced "tutorial" section on the main page (and not just accessible through the wiki. I mean... geez). There are two things I think Inkscape does Very right in regards to documentation: 1. Include a number of tutorials on the basics in the very releases. Those are lifesavers. 2. Include screenshots. I give the Inkscape screenshots section 2 thumbs up because they're Really good at showing off Inkscape's capabilities.

Where the suggested tutorial section is concerned, I'd propose advanced tutorials with a nice big-enough preview for advanced styles as well as simpler ones. Categories would include: - make a photorealistic car - make a photorealistic person - various other art styles - advanced technical blueprints (or whatever) - setting up a whole set of icons for webpage usage - the works

This would be similar to what Corel Painter does, which is the great thing it does with Its documentation. Painter's documentation basically gives advanced painting tutorials by advanced artists. Inkscape may or may not have such advanced artists willing to contribute for now, but these will be good for exposure when available because when a user browses the webpage, as soon as they see these they'd go "This is what Inkscape is capable of. This is what -I- may be capable of, if I follow these tutorials." Sold! If the examples offered in the tutorials are good enough, the "wow" effect would be as nearly great as an advanced user gallery section with favourites etc.

A section underneath would provide smaller tips for various effects.

Anyway, those are my 2 cents.

___________________________________________________________________________________ You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html