Sven-Hendrik Haase schrieb:
> Adding official forums would greatly benefit the Bacula project, I think.

That would require someone who'd act as a moderator for the forums, and
knowledgeable people to frequent it and answer questions. Unlike mailing
lists, forums stay usable only as long as someone is animating and
moderating them.

> Mailing lists are okay, but they do not provide some of the options and
> benefits of forums. Forums would also provide easier support access to
> younger folks (such as myself :P).

I don't see how a forum would be any easier than E-mail. In my experience,
it's the other way round. Whenever I have to use a forum for support it
tends to be much more time consuming than simple E-mail.

> Other advantages I see compared to using mailing lists only:
> 1) Improved overview since it is visually more pleasing and more
> sub-categories can be used.
> 2) It's easier to track complex topics.

I can't confirm either of these two statements from the forums I have
encountered so far. But perhaps I am just too old. ;-)

> I'm not suggesting the removal of mailing lists in favor of forums, I'm
> merely suggesting the forums should be added to the main site, mainly in
> order to get support.

That would exacerbate the manpower problem. How many mailing list
participants will find the time to frequent a forum in addition? And if
none of the mailing list participants frequent the forum, who will provide
support there? I see the danger of fragmenting the Bacula user community
into "old hands" on the mailing list and "younger folks" on the forums.
Crosslinking the two isn't a viable solution either, as demonstrated by
the Opensuse mailing lists whose usability has suffered seriously after
the merge with the previously separate Opensuse forums.

Jm2c
T.

-- 
Tilman Schmidt
Phoenix Software GmbH
Bonn, Germany

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