A real Forum for D

[Mike Parker]

On 11/29/2011 8:36 AM, Johannes Totz wrote:

>
> PHP forum? Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!1
> If D had a web-based forum only I would not bother reading it or ever
> coming back to it. I would not have bothered trying to learn any D. I
> like how these "ancient" newsgroups sort and organise individual
> messages. I get a nice threaded view, I can see what I've read already,
> who replied to what. Very efficient.

Conversely, there are people who see a newsgroup and run away screaming. 
There have been several projects I've looked into over the years and 
where I didn't get involved with the community precisely because they 
had a newsgroup and not a forum.

Consider this. I've been using web-based mail for years, so had no 
mail/newsgroup client installed. Why would I want to install one just 
for one little project? With a forum, I don't have to install anything. 
I've been using them for years, am quite used to them, and think the 
newsgroup interface is antiquated. I hated it even back in 1995 when it 
was all we had. Forums are in my comfort zone.

Obviously, I made an exception for D because I think it rocks. I went 
and downloaded Thunderbird. To date, the D newsgroups are all I use it 
for. But I wonder how many people didn't make an exception? Obviously, 
we can't please everyone. And I think common sense dictates that in a 
newsgroup, we will see more people who prefer newsgroups. But I really 
believe that if we had a proper forum, we'd have a great many more users 
in the community (for better or worse).

Anyway, this horse has been beat to death more than once here.

>
> Forum? barf... I hate having to sign up here and register there. I
> opportunistically want to reply to messages. All this clutter around it,
> avatars, annoying formatting. Please, pretty please, no.
>
> A nice web-based interface to the newsgroup? Yeah could do (I wouldn't
> use it though).