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A new message board is up

Jeff Shannon jeff at ccvcorp.com
Thu Dec 27 14:11:09 EST 2001 
Andrew Dalke wrote:

> Andrew Nguyen wrote:
> >A new message board (that doesn't have the Usenet delay) is up!
>
> >Also, usenet SUXXOR (sucks) because itttt issss soooo
> >cunfuseeeng... Why not switch to an EZBoard? Why have maling
> >lists that are too confusing?  I for one say that we create a
> > NEW forum!
>
> But it does require a login, registration, including address,
> income(!), and marital status(!!) information, and a 300 line
> license agreement.  Since it's a web based system there's also
> a lack of good search system, no way to add your own filters,
> no support for off-line reading, killing a thread, archive
> messages, or all those other features Usenet readers have
> accumulated over time.  I don't think it can scale up to
> several hundred messages a day, like c.l.py has.

I agree, Andrew.

As a frequent contributor to another EZBoard group (focused on a
local community), I can say that for certain things, the features
that EZBoard has are great.  For our local community group, I
wouldn't want to use Usenet.  But, by the same token, there are
things for which Usenet is better.  (And how on earth is Usenet
confusing?  Maybe it's just a matter of using a crappy
newsreader--Outlook Express, perhaps?)   I wouldn't want to read
this Python group on EZBoard.  One should match the tool to the
situation, and however pretty and shiny a tool EZBoard might be, its
features do not make it the most suited for an open
programming-language forum.

EZBoard *can* handle several hundred messages daily, but it can get
to be a bit slow at times, especially since it tends to include a
moderate amount of graphics.  Also, EZboard is commercial--it's
supported by popup ads.  A community can buy freedom from ads, at a
rate that's determined by the traffic on that board--I'd estimate
several thousand dollars per year, at the traffic rate of c.l.py.

I don't want to see ads while reading c.l.py, nor do I think it's
reasonable to expect members to donate money.  To be honest, I don't
think it's reasonable to require "membership" (however easily
gained) to post in a programming forum.  For these reasons and
others (like sheer disgust at the thought of anyone using "l33t
sp34k" in anything other than total parody), I won't be
participating in this Python EZBoard.

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International
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