The D programming language newsgroup should lift its game

[Simen kjaeraas]

Mike Parker <aldacron at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jordi wrote:
>> Kyle Mallory wrote:
>>> On 4/1/10 10:51 PM, Justin Johansson wrote:
>>>> Nick Sabalausky Wrote:
>>>>
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> Kyle
>>>
>>  I second all this. I understand D is not a "corporative" project  
>> backed up by a huge marketing team or anything like that, but better  
>> managing of its image and communication channels (in usability and  
>> appearance) would help it a lot.
>>
>
> A big start would be ditching the newsgroups for proper forum software.  
> I know a lot of people here prefer the newsgroups, but like it or not  
> this is 2010. Newsgroups are from yesteryear. People who weren't online  
> in their heyday don't expect to have to use them (for that matter, there  
> are those who *were* around and don't expect to have to use them). When  
> someone checks out a project for the first time, it's quite common these  
> days that one of the first stops is the project's forums. No forums? Ah  
> well, too bad. Next project.
>
> These days, you can't expect people to have a newsreader installed by  
> default. Nor can they be expected to know how to use one. And as for the  
> web interface, compared to the quality of forum software out there it is  
> horribly substandard.
>
> Furthermore, a forum can yield some useful activity statistics that you  
> just can't get from a newsgroup. That help in gauging the interest in D  
> itself as well as specific areas/features, moreso than TIOBE/# of DMD  
> downloads/# of nesgroup posts.
>
> Walter has iterated his gripes with forum software more than once. But  
> in my mind, the downsides of web forums are far fewer than those of  
> newsgroups, especially when viewed from the eyes of many of today's  
> twenty- & thirty-somethings.

Also, in this day of steam-powered kajiggeries and electromechanical
doohickeys, there is software available that allows one to keep a
regular forum and newsgroups synced. Never actually tried any of those,
though.

-- 
Simen