I have to echo Roy's sentiments a bit. Having set up and maintained a
couple of online forums I am aware of both the up and downsides of the
technology. Most forum applications can re-issue forum posts as
eMails, either individually or in digest form. Where forums excel is
in maintaining congruent threads. We often have threading problems
with Statalist depending on the mailers that subscribers use and how
they handle referencing to previous mails. Other benefits include the
ability to include code, screenshots, diagrams, etc. as attachments.
There are downsides, of course. It is hard to keep spam off forums as
spambots get increasingly sophisticated. (Want V1@gr@, anyone?)
Forums generally require quite a bit more backend maintenance than
mailing lists, although that does not require someone with content
expertise in Stata. The *best* solution to my mind would be a
combination forum and Wiki where certain subject threads get condensed
and transferred to the semi-permanent Wiki, a continually expanding
body of knowledge that is often more easily searched and scanned than
mailing list archives.
Speaking of Wikis, I have seen the combination of mailing list and
Wiki provide a very good resource as well. One example would be the
web design resource "CSS-discuss" [ http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ ]
These are, of course, just musings and many folk find the current
format to be suitable for their needs. However, with a new year come
new ideas and it wouldn't hurt to step back and reflect on whether
this resource could be made better for plebes and pundits alike.
DCE
---
David C. Elliott, MD, MSc
Medical Advisor, Epidemiologist
Nova Scotia Department of Health, Halifax, CAN
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