Networker

[Networker] Who is using 7.4 now? Its great!!!!

2007-09-21 20:04:19
Subject: [Networker] Who is using 7.4 now? Its great!!!!
From: cpreston <networker-forum AT BACKUPCENTRAL DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:59:42 -0700
Davina  (or should I say @ Davina) ;)

I respect your opinion a lot.  I am well aware that the 'marriage" of the 
forums and this mailing list (and two other mailing lists, BTW) has brought 
with it both good and bad.  I do believe the good has outweighed the bad, so 
allow me to share why I feel this way.

The big reason I did this was that not everybody communicates via email, and/or 
receive 10-50 emails a day about NetWorker.  These people tended to join the 
list, ask their question, then leave the list as soon as possible -- or never 
join the list at all and not get their questions answered.  

So I wanted to build a forum for those people, but I didn't want to build yet 
another "forum."  (Although I have nothing against the tek-tips site, for 
example, I didn't want to start yet another NetWorker forum like theirs.)

So we tried it out.  The biggest issue was spam, and I believe that we've dealt 
with that pretty strongly and effectively.  (I know we had a "break" a few 
weeks back. That was human error on my part.)  The anti-spam measures I've 
taken on the forum are actually tighter than those on the mailing list.

So what benefit has it actually brought to the list?

1. A very readable, searchable archive of the list.  If you haven't seen how 
nice it is to search on and follow a previous discussion, you should really try 
it.  IMHO, it's much easier to use/follow than any mailing list archive that 
I've seen.

2.  Increased participation.  Do you know that of the 3000 or so posts that 
have been sent to the NetWorker mailing list since January, 300 of them have 
come from the forum?  I've been watching closely, and a lot of them have been 
very good content that contributed value to the conversation, not just "fly by" 
questions.

3. Increased chance of users finding their answers without having to ask the 
list.  The forums are searched by Google, and Backup Central's google ranking 
helps those old answers pop up at the top.

In addition, remember:

1. Each user is identified by their Backup Central user id in the "From" field 
and by their email address at the end of the post, so there is no anonymous 
posting.  (See this post as an example.  I decided to post via the forum this 
time.)

2. Although the particular user that sparked this discussion came off a bit 
strong, it's not like we haven't had similar postings from email users.  (I can 
think of a few this week.)

I won't hold my breath until you change your mind, but I'll hold out hope. 
How's that? ;)

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