Re: We need a forum!

[John Belmonte <john@...>]

Jason Murdick wrote:
> A wiki is really not what Michael was suggesting, if I may be so bold as to
> interpret his initial post.
>
> He is suggesting a real forum, with threads that are organized, user
> accounts, and a real search utility. Something such as phpBB if I am not
> mistaken.
>
> I would have to agree with him. I'm not a big fan of mailing lists,
> preferring discussion boards instead.

I'm not strongly against deploying such an application.  I can say that 
I've considered this carefully before, and concluded that we cover most 
of what we need with the existing resources, and going down that path 
doesn't seem very cost effective.

A few points to consider:

    * the lua-l archive search at lua-users.org is a very powerful 
full-text search (not a keyword search)

    * there is no substitute for people digesting what they learn or 
discuss on the list regarding some subject, and then carefully writing 
coherent pages on the wiki, which may then be refactored

    * most of the current community resources are under free hosting at 
sourceforge.  phpBB or the like will require some other hosting 
solution.  Whoever commits to that must have a sustainable, long term plan.

    * there are some well-respected members of the Lua community who 
will not participate if they have to "register".  (Or maybe Edgar has 
changed his view :-).


I believe we already have a forum (lua-l + wiki), and it has proved 
quite effective.

-John

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