I prefer e-mail lists and netnews. Here's why.

[Martin Maney]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 09:31:10PM -0500, J.B. Nicholson-Owens wrote:
> I'm sure if you're talking about augmentation or replacement.  I
> guess I'll be the lone voice of dissent in this thread; augmentation
> sounds fine but I differ on replacement.

Aw, don't feel lonely.  If I had to visit a web forum, I would be
looking for a less cumbersome way to find support (or maybe deciding
that there must be easier choices and going off to look for them). 
Personally I would love to see this as a news group - the tools for
archiving and threading are nicer there IME.  But I have yet to see a
mail<->news gateway that didn't screw things up often enough to make
that way of getting there not worth the effort for me.

> I doubt it would cut down on redundancy.  I have yet to see any forum
> in any medium which accomplishes this.

Nor will you see one any time soon.  The problem isn't, for the most
part, the forum/FAQ/etc. technology, it's the people who can't or won't
use it - some part of whom are those who might try but just don't get
it until the description is made really concrete in terms of a setting
they know.

-- 
And in the end, reality always tends to hit theory hard
in the face when you least expect it.  - Linus