[okfn-labs] New discussion forum for Labs - http://discuss.okfn.org/

[Tom Morris]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 5:11 AM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
wrote:

> tl;dr check out http://discuss.okfn.org/ a new discussion forum for Labs
> and associated projects
>
[...]

> ### Is this intended to replace the current discussion list (
> okfn-labs at lists.okfn.org)?
>
> No, absolutely not - this list will remain the primary general discussion
> location.
>

It sounds like this position has changed (or is changing) and there's a
move afoot to abandon email.  It's likely no more possible to agree on the
best communications mechanism than the best editor or best religion, but,
for the record, I think this would be a bad idea, were it to happen.

Almost anything can be used as a communication channel (heck, wikipedians
think scribbling on a wiki is a perfectly acceptable way to have a
conversation), but email has stood the test of time and is the lingua
franca of non-realtime one-to-many written communication.  Everyone has an
email account and everyone checks it regularly because that's how they
receive the bulk of their communication.  If Mailman's crappy archives are
part of the problem, you might consider using Markmail.org or
mail-archive.com (I prefer the former).

The two things that are worse than abandoning email are: 1) having half the
community using one tool and half the other and 2) abandoning email for
forums and then reversing the decision when forums don't work.  DPLA is a
recent example of a group that has done the latter http://dp.la/info/forums/
They abandoned email 2 years ago, then abandoned the forums 15 months later.

For those that have a forum account, there is a related discussion here:
http://discuss.okfn.org/t/enable-mailing-list-capabilities-of-discourse/219

Tom
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