On 13/01/13 11:21, Alexandre Couture wrote:
>
>
>> On Sunday 13 January 2013 08:06:43 Dan Youngquist wrote:
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> So, I hope we can convince folks to trim their replies a little more.
>>
>>    +25  :-)
>>
>>   G.
>
> Just throwing an idea like that:
> Wouldn't a forum be a better platform than mailling list?
> It also avoid top-posting and trim problems...

No it wouldn't be better, and no forums don't avoid posting issues.

Forums are a "pull" technology: I have to actively decide to go to some
website and look for new comments or questions, then keep refreshing the
page periodically to see replies to questions. Even if there is some sort
of notification service (like a RSS feed), nevertheless I must still make
the decision to actively open a tab in a browser and go to the forum.

Email is a "push" technology: new comments and questions just appear in
my inbox without me needing to go out and look for them. So long as I
monitor this one location, my inbox, I will see these messages.

I already have, at quick count, well over 120 assorted tabs open in five
different browsers on two machines. If I had to actively monitor this list
by viewing a web page, I wouldn't.

As for posting issues, it is probably true that web forums *reduce* the
hassle caused by top-posting and failure to trim. But that's only because
forum software usually defaults to "no quote" replies: replies have have
no context, except that they are part of some thread. In small threads,
or in sufficiently well-written and explicit replies, you don't need much
to establish context. But as threads get bigger, or as writers get lazier
or less competent, you still need to establish context. I cannot begin to
tell you how many forum discussions I have seen with replies that give
*no clue* who, or which specific comment, they are replying to.



-- 
Steven