[MTOS-dev] should there be an mtos-general? or (shudder) mtos-help?

[Patrick Stainier]

I second Tim on this. I woke up with 19 mails from this mailing list.  
As I have seen it happen in the "pro-net" mailing list, most of the  
mails are redundant and are out of context. This is because people do  
not make the effort to read what has been asked or answered elsewhere.  
We live inthe era of immediacy. We wan the answer to our problem now.  
I think forums have a purpose: create a community.  Google groups are  
forum of some sort, but some work as such, other are just a replica of  
what we see here: a clear flooding of mails from a few that completely  
obliterate what's at stake: make the product better, gain  
understanding of issues, etc. We just see the "I need this" type of  
behavior. You don't see me post very often, because the answers I am  
looking for are usually somewhere. If the existing forums were used  
the way they are supposed to, we wouldn't see this amount of messages  
that  most of the time offer nothing and deserve no more than a delete  
action. I pulled myself of the pro mailing lists because most of the  
mails were irrelevant to the purpose. I had the feeling that some  
people spent most of their day hitting the reply button for the sake  
of being part of the conversation. IRC and chat service are the place  
for that. Mail implies developping arguments, sharing thoughts,  
ideas,...
I think the MTOS community needs and deserves something different. I  
think a well moderated  forum  would address most of the concerns, and  
mail should be kept to discuss things  in depth. The Django community  
uses their google groups and the project page  with some success. I  
think the movabletype.org page is a step in that direction.
I will see how this list goes, but, I think I am on my way out as  
well. This won't stop me using the product for what it does well and  
address my questions and requests to those who make MT what it is,  
hence the plugin developper.
Sharing is a two way process. I don't see much of it here.
Heve a great day
Patrick
On Dec 13, 2007, at 3:11 AM, Timothy Appnel wrote:

>> 3.  Even today, Timothy Appnel said to someone on pro-net that he  
>> thought
>> there was an mtos list for support.
>
> Please let me clarify because I did a bad job of getting across what I
> really meant to say. ProNet is not a support mailing list and its
> certainly not the place for getting MTOS help given all the new and
> more topic appropriate options that are now available.
>
>> Probably because email is the great
>> equalizer, and also because it intrudes into people's lives.
>
> You think intruding is a good way to get someone to volunteer their
> time to help?
>
> Think of it this way -- Six Apart has been using forums to do MT
> community support since before they where Six Apart and just Ben and
> Mena. They also marketing a forum solution and not a mailing list
> solution.
>
> <tim/>
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