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0 pointsSoftTalker6mo ago0 comments

My problem with forums is that I am forced to use a web browser and access them through their provided interface. A lot of them, especially the older ones, are seriously hard to use and even worse on mobile.

Mailing lists I access with my preferred mail client and environment.

Receiving "10,000 emails per day" would only happen on a very active list. In most cases you're talking about a dozen or at worst a few hundred. Your email client can easily filter those into a virtual folder, and quickly find the messages where you are addressed or threads you're interested in.

Once I have the emails, I have them forever. I am not dependent on some forum remaining online five years from now if I want to go find an old message.

Web forums and wikis just suck for message-based interactions. Email is designed for that and it works really well.

0 comments

eschaton6mo ago

I find that people who complain about email volume are not only unfamiliar with setting up rules to file messages into folders, but entirely uninterested in learning how to leverage their tools that way.

In fact, it seems many of them resent having to learn anything in order to be more productive, instead insisting the burden belongs on others. “I don’t want to get all that email, so it’s OK for me to make you visit a web page several times a day to participate instead.”

And no, Discourse’s “mailing list mode” isn’t sufficient, it’s as garbage as the rest of Discourse, especially when D showed the right way to do this: Mailing list primary, NNTP newsgroup gatewayed (or vice versa), with a web forum for those who insist on one.

If only LLVM et al had gone that route.

BeFlatXIII6mo ago

It's replicated work for every person who wants to set up filters and notifications. Discord or whatever has defaults that don't require everyone to create their custom environment.

johnisgood6mo ago

But you trade a lot for not wanting to set up your own custom environment. You only have to set up yours. There is no one size that fits all, and if this flexibility comes with these features mentioned (non-proprietary, federated, archivable, accessible, not dependent on a specific company), then: yes, please! How could anyone not want this?

eschaton5mo ago

“It sucks for everyone equally, so it’s better.”

Nah. The “replicated work” is in deciding what you want your mail folder structure to look like, which is a pretty personal decision; creating the filter on List-Id itself is trivial.

theshrike795mo ago

https://www.tapatalk.com/introduction is a thing

They use some kind of API to connect to forums and display them on mobile in a semi-unified UI.

There's nothing stopping anyone from creating an application that uses the same APIs and provides the contents in a more fitting format.

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