[Mono-list] Just a thought...

[KielW]

On 2/11/07, Miguel de Icaza <miguel at novell.com> wrote:
>
> I wonder if a "Google Group" is as good as a Forum?


My feels are they are better.  I much prefer digging around in a google
group (or old Usenet group) than the MSDN forums. However, what the forums
have going for them is:


   - Visibility.  If you develop on MS technologies you know about the
   forums and are directed there at every possible avenue when asking a
   question
   - MS presence. Its the only place besides blogs where us lowly
   developers get a chance to talk to MS dev's or PM's and have them answer
   questions
   - Well used. This is very true during the development stages of the
   new Vista technologies.  I came on stage last summer and there was already a
   wealth of info.  In some cases people just posted solutions to "gotcha's"
   since they knew people searched the forums.  I also knew that if I posted a
   question, there was a good chance of getting an answer.
   - Ability to easily search. I mentioned this above, but its easy to go
   to a forum, search for an answer.  This can be done with Mono's current
   system... but not so well.  Someone new  on the list today can't easily
   benefit from a discussion that took place last week.

I think moving from Usenet groups to google.groups would be a giant plus.
People that still want to get individual emails can set it up to do so.
Others can choose to just browse online.  Have a visible link on the
Monologue.

If we go that route, the devs and the community has to push it hard. Mention
it to people in IRC when they have a question, post it front page on the
mono-project site.  Get community members to blog about it. And *drop the
current mailing lists*.  If we try to run both of them, it will fragment the
knowledge.
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