Re: A 400 thing happened on the way to the forum.

Phil, we understand your point.  But consider:

1) There are thousands of AS/400 users who don't 
participate in ANY AS/400 forums, simply because 
they aren't aware of them.  A new WWW forum, with 
many new vendor links to it, can only increase 
awareness of the internet resources that support 
AS/400 users.

2) Newsgroups are an awful forum compared to the 
web.  Many ISP's (ours included) retrieve only a
portion of the posts to many newsgroups.  And the 
spam that you must wade through (and possibly 
expose yourself to by posting) is intolerable to 
many.

3) Midrange-L is terrific, I agree.  For starters,
there's no spam to wade through, and David has done 
a fine job policing the abusers.  Still, one must 
wade through a vast number of emails daily to keep 
up with the large number of posts.  And some readers
(mine, for example), don't organize email very well 
so that sorting out Midrange-L posts from others is 
time-consuming.  And, until very recently, there was 
no archive/search facility that would allow you to 
find answers to old questions/problems.

4) Commercial web site forums such as the one you 
moderate have only one true purpose -- to make money.  
Now, we're all for profit, but not if it means being 
deluged with commercial banners and vendor hype at 
every turn.  The possibility of spam and junk mail 
originating from these sites is certain as they are, 
in fact, in the business of selling mailing lists.

Personally, I wouldn't completely trust a forum site 
run by the vendor or by those beholden to advertisers. 
The popularity of Midrange-L attests to the usefulness 
of a trustworthy, unbiased, user-operated information 
resource.  We're simply trying to do likewise, but based 
on web pages rather than a mailing list.  We are not
aware of any other non-commercial midrange forum site.

The forum400.com site is still in its infancy.  It 
will evolve, grow or die depending upon user input 
and needs, not the requirements of a bottom line. 

Joe Frank
Synapse Communications, Inc.


Phil Hall wrote:
> 
> > Uhmmm, gee, Phil, I don't recall implying that participation
> > in the forum was mandatory.
> 
> This wasn't the point I was making.  I'd really like to spend all of my
> time in all the midrange forums/list/newsgroups, but this work thing
> gets in the way (well, it's the paying the bills thing that causes the
> work thing to get in the way ;-)
> 
> My point was that as the internet expands, there will far too many
> places to go for midrange info, I hope that this doesn't dilute the
> usefulness of the current sites.
> 
> > The trouble with the other
> > "general purpose" forums you mention, with the exception
> > of this mailing list, are that they are run for the benefit
> > of the vendor and/or its advertisers, not its users.
> 
> Exactly, but there is useful information shared on these forums, that
> might not make it to this list, and in the future, with more resources
> to go check, you could post a question in one forum and wait for weeks
> for help, but post it in another and help arrives in minutes.
> 
> My concern is simply that in the future I'd miss some really useful info
> because it was posted somewhere I didn't visit.
> 
> I think Roger Pence was having a similar issue with the AS/400 web infor
> at the IBM site...
> 
> Ideal world -----> just this list !!
> 
> --phil
> 
> --
> Phil Hall
> ________________________________________________
> 
> email . . . . : hallp@ssax.com
> phone(w). . . : (312) 258-6319
> 
> News/400 C/C++ Forum moderator at;
>        http://www.news400.com/c/index.htm
> ________________________________________________
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