Re: We need a forum!

[Ivan Kolev <ikolev@...>]

I completely agree with all defenders of the mailing list. Both
the forum and the list are forms of the same method of comminication
(the forum has some bells and whistles which are more appropriate for
teenagers). The only reason to have a forum instead of a list is the
ability to extend this method with new functionality. I.e., to have not
just a forum, but many other things beside it - news, articles,
tutorials, link section, samples section, etc. All this can be done with
the power of web programming, which is not available in a mailing list.

But, we already have all that on the lua-users wiki. So the only reason
to switch to a forum that I see is to integrate all the sources of
information about Lua in one place (currently, there are at least three
of them - lua.org, lua-users.org and the mailing list) Joining together
the methods of comminication gives them the option to share their
functionality - e.g., if we had a forum, we could now simply cast a
vote, pro and con the mailing list. Or, I could drop using the RSS news
reader to learn about changes in lua-users.org, because all such changes
would appear in the news of the integrated Lua site.

However, maintaing such a site (not just a forum) is a serious task. I
suppose at least one person should be completely occupied with the site
administration. Since the Lua community is not so large for now and
cannot afford that, the three separate sources of information (authors
web site, wiki and mailing list), which are quite easy to manage
(practically self-administered), are the better choice.

Cheers,
Ivan