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Web-based forum & email lists

Posted by Michael Slevin 
Re: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 08:21
On Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:49:28 GMT, IWAI forum Michael Slevin wrote, in
<[AG]www.iwai.ie>:

> Posted at: [www.iwai.ie]
> Michael Slevin wrote:
>
> Again, taking Hamilton's point ...
> Hi Michael,
> The list has not been kept as originally promised, mainly because it is out
> of sequence and many mails from the forum, which make sense on the forum,
> appear on the list almost as pantomime, i.e., oh yes you did , oh no you
> didn`t. These can presumably be skipped over on the forum or a particular
> thread ignored.
>
> Hamilton, the list has been kept as originally promised. However, with email only, people tend not to fire off 1-line emails, not to assume that the context is immediately available to the recipient and other norms.
> People who use a web-based forum do tend to assume that everyone can see the remainder of a thread and so you get the utterly useless (to an email reader) post that says "I agree with Paddy".

There would be no problem with keeping the context for the email list if
you would just provide the In-Reply-To: header (References: would be
overkill) that allows an email program to thread the messages. As it
stands the only messages that have this are the ones originating via
email.

Regards, Ni
RE: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 09:08
OceanFroggie wrote:

"In 2010 circa 6k posts via web, 3k via email which is a fairly
significant change trend. Email posts down to 3k from a high of 5k in
2006."

Noel, would this suggest the figures would swing back if you changed to
emailsmiling smiley?
RE: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 11:42
Whatever about CPB, I think Michael's work on this dual system is great.
Flat is still good for me. Forum is useful for posting images - otherwise
email is perfect. Email also works on any device - even small-screen, non
IOS/Android devices. No apps required and no proprietary tie-in. I would
like if the forum web page could be 'lighter', maybe optionally divorced
from the IWAI outer bits.
Re: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 12:29
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Email is fine. When images are mentioned I
find it easy to click on the link and go to the other site. I dislike the
forum for a number of reasons, all personal.

Paul Mc Cann

On 13 January 2011 11:42, Conor Nolan wrote:

> Whatever about CPB, I think Michael's work on this dual system is great.
> Flat is still good for me. Forum is useful for posting images - otherwise
> email is perfect. Email also works on any device - even small-screen, non
> IOS/Android devices. No apps required and no proprietary tie-in. I would
> like if the forum web page could be 'lighter', maybe optionally divorced
> from the IWAI outer bits.
>
>
>
Re: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 13:04
Michael,
I suppose email is going to go the way of cheques eventually but until
then I will stick with email.
My email client loads when I start Windows, then one click gets all my
emails; IWAI stuff filtered to its own folder.
Loading browsers as well at startup was too iffy in W7. My Firefox and
now Opera load an essential spam catching tab first and so I have to
click on the IWAI forum tab, then click on login... Life's too short.
> Posted at: [www.iwai.ie]
> Michael Slevin wrote:
>
>
> Coping with ~4,500 emails seemed reasonable, but in 2010 the total of posts was ~8,950 - too much to follow without a very good threading email client
*/Mozilla's POP3 Thunderbird, otherwise very good at threading struggles
with that [waterways] subject prefix eg.
Re:[waterways]Re: List versus Forum
Re:[waterways]Re: List versus Forum/*
>
> The views expressed in the above message are not necessarily the official
> policy or comment of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland and are
> personal to the sender of the above message only, unless otherwise stated.
>
>
--

*Peter White*
Re: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 13:22
Whoa.

What would replace email ? It is used daily and extensively in the
commercial environment. Texting (txtg in fugly speech) is o/k for brief
contacts. Facebook and Twitter ? Do me a favour !

I'm not saying email is forever, after all I can remember Telex as being
very useful and that was killed within a few years by fax, which in turn
seems to be succumbing to email, but email in some form or another surely
has a fair bit of life in it still.

Paul Mc Cann

On 13 January 2011 13:04, Peter Whitewrote:

>
>
> Michael,
> I suppose email is going to go the way of cheques eventually but until then
> I will stick with email.
> My email client loads when I start Windows, then one click gets all my
> emails; IWAI stuff filtered to its own folder.
> Loading browsers as well at startup was too iffy in W7. My Firefox and now
> Opera load an essential spam catching tab first and so I have to click on
> the IWAI forum tab, then click on login... Life's too short.
>
> Posted at: [www.iwai.ie]
> Michael Slevin wrote:
>
>
> Coping with ~4,500 emails seemed reasonable, but in 2010 the total of posts was ~8,950 - too much to follow without a very good threading email client
>
> *Mozilla's POP3 Thunderbird, otherwise very good at threading struggles
> with that [waterways] subject prefix eg.
> Re:[waterways]Re: List versus Forum
> Re:[waterways]Re: List versus Forum*
>
> The views expressed in the above message are not necessarily the official
> policy or comment of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland and are
> personal to the sender of the above message only, unless otherwise stated.
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Peter White*
>
>
Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 13:53
I have to agree with Fergal and Coreibh CPB is better than this one in terms of finding what you want as it is nicely categorised. This one seems to have only one bucket.

It would be nice to have sub-forums for different areas of interest and activities. Particularly useful would be a "Beginners" sub forum where people new to boating could ask questions and get good advice as well as read through old topics with tips and information that is relevant to them.

The beginners section of CPB was particularly useful to me when I started researching boats and boating this time last year. I searched this forum too and only managed to find information by chance, I'm sure I missed many nougets of information because of the lack of categorisiation.
Re: RE: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 14:40
Quote:
Terry Quigley
Noel, would this suggest the figures would swing back if you changed to
emailsmiling smiley?

Hi Terry. No don't think so. smiling smiley I haven't been that active for past few seasons. winking smiley winking smiley PJ has taken on that role.

OceanFroggie
Re: RE: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 15:34
Froggie, I would never ,in my wildest dreams imagine I could replace you on the forum . Your 5000 plus postings to my paltry 800 makes it an impossible task. Also your technical expertise and turn of phrase make you an invaluable asset to the forum. Your ability never to be wrong and your irrational arguments occassionally makes me feel like strangling you.
You are a friend. PJthe finger smiley
Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 20:41
Forgive me for being old but what the hell is CPB.
Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 20:44
Club Power Boat
[www.powerboat.ie]
Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 20:46
Quote:
Mike Kingston
Forgive me for being old but what the hell is CPB.

Club powerboat.ie [www.powerboat.ie] Take a walk on the wild side grinning smiley
Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 22:59
Quote:
fergal butler
Quote:
Mike Kingston
Forgive me for being old but what the hell is CPB.

Club powerboat.ie [www.powerboat.ie] Take a walk on the wild side grinning smiley

Or CPH - Club petrol head as it's now known by it's cruiser members winking smiley

OceanFroggie
Re: RE: Re: List versus Forum
13 January, 2011 23:21
Quote:
pj norris
Froggie, I would never ,in my wildest dreams imagine I could replace you on the forum . Your 5000 plus postings to my paltry 800 makes it an impossible task. Also your technical expertise and turn of phrase make you an invaluable asset to the forum. Your ability never to be wrong and your irrational arguments occassionally makes me feel like strangling you.
You are a friend. PJthe finger smiley

As stated on ze ozer tred, vat won hass don is ze past is ov litl relevans, al zat materz now ist vat koms after jetze. Ze kwality of your act hundert posts mach fur gut enzertainmentz. You haf kompletly foxed me Herr PJ Von Noritz. I kan no more fotograf make. Yu imply zat ich alvays korect are, but yu are inkorect tu azzert zat I am nicht always never inkorect about not being korect! Unterstant vat saying I am? Zis verbal cabbage ist bad produktion in mien stomack macken. Opps . . . the finger smiley

OceanFroggie
Re: IWAI Website, Forum & Email Statistics
27 January, 2011 17:14
yes but there are now dedicated free iPhone and Android apps that link to specific online forums, makes it very easy to contribute from a smart phone. Not sure in this media rich environment, whether email has any future for forums.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 27/01/2011 17:14 by Dave McCabe.
Re: Web-based forum & email lists
02 January, 2012 10:07
Hello folks, [check]
Just a note to indicate that I intend to upgrade/update the forum software over the coming days/weeks, i.e. subject to available time, but hopefully over a single evening.
This is prompted by our DB now occupying 1016.3 MB out of a 500 MB quota! This makes it unwieldy to backup and indeed migrate/upgrade. I need to shrink the DB by migrating the photos out of the DB. Apologies if you see the forum inoperative at short notice, some evening. This should also significantly speed up the forum too! It is not my intention to delete any posts or threads while doing this.
Michael



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2012 23:15 by Michael Slevin.
Re: Web-based forum & email lists
07 January, 2012 11:14
Hi Folks,
I thought a few might be interested in the following graph ...


We have 1332 registered users on the forum of whom 449 (33%) logged in during 2011.
575 users have used the forum to post a message at some stage since they registered.

We have 272 on our waterways mailing list of whom ~97 (35%) contributed posts by email in 2011.

We still have 133 receiving a daily digest of forum posts.
Our one-way iwai-news mailing list reaches 642.

I have to confess that once upon a time I actually read every post on every thread, but that can no longer be the case ... we've gone from an average of 6 posts a day to 34 posts a day. Life is too short!
Michael
Re: IWAI Website, Forum & Email Statistics
07 January, 2012 16:15
Quote:
Mick Farrell
Hmmm...only in 5th place...!! I'll have to make a special effort this year
to catch up with Froggie.

Happy New Year to all..!!

M(W&W)F

Michael,

How did I do...??

M(W&W)F
Re: Web-based forum & email lists
08 January, 2012 22:40
Hi Mick,
I guess that this is what you're after ...
The following have contributed more than 500 posts to the list since 1999.
Contributor 	Posts
Noel Griffin 	6,406
Dave McCabe 	4,007
Colin Becker	3,882
Brian J Goggin	3,300
Mick Farrell 	2,688
P.J. Norris	1,621
Duncan Cremin	1,441
John Kinsella 	1,315
Shane Kennedy	1,273
Paul Mc Cann 	1,092
Alun Goodall 	1,037
Sven Neubert 	  993
Peter Kingston 	  884
Les Saunders 	  865
Conor Nolan 	  862
Michael Slevin 	  858
Richard Ellis 	  856
Niall Galway	  748
Paddy Mackey 	  736
Mark Maguire 	  725
Andy Jordan 	  700
Tom Bailey	  654
Stuart McNamara   632
M.G. Kerr 	  628
Leslie O'Hora 	  591
Gerry Burke	  566
Stephen Maher 	  558
J.A. Gunning 	  530
Mike Kingston	  523
Joe Griffin	  518
Dermot Kelly	  509
Note that no claim is made for the absolute accuracy of any of the figures posted!
Perhaps the post remarkable figure above is that BJG is still so highly placed a contributor, given that he has not been active on the list since 2004. It does highlight the enormous contribution made by Brian between 1999 and May 2004. Noel's continued output defies belief! My own contributions are primarily administrative in nature and may not warrant a place in the pantheon!

Could I thank all who take the time to give of their expertise and assistance to those in need of advice/help via the forum and I look forward to more of the lurkers coming forward with their gems of knowledge.
/M



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2012 23:41 by Michael Slevin.
Re: Web-based forum & email lists
09 January, 2012 00:53
Jaysus,

All that waffling, and I still only have the 5th biggest mouth on here....LOL Right enough, BJG's post rate must have been pretty impressive. So...I need 10 posts a day just to catch up to where Froggie is now. I'll have to start posting 1 word at a time...!!

M(W&W)F
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