Re: IBM Gives RPG Devotees Their Own Café

there doesn't seem to be much difference between email lists and forums.

Are you kidding me?

I'm in Outlook all day long. I've got a bunch of folders, I can see a view of Midrange, SQLServer, .Net, IRB, 21CFR11, etc. All from one spot. Oh, and it's the same spot I get "real" work done w/clients and vendors.

The web is _nothing_ like that. I (the human being) have to open numerous sites, click through numerous pages and then I get a bunch of fluff and pretty colors, in-between which, I might see a topic that interests me, I then have to click another link, wait for another page to open, and then click through a bunch of pages to see the entire message trail because the stupid web admin only shows 5 messages on a "page." Not to mention that I've got to see messages I've already seen, because they're part of the "thread." Oh, and the UI for each of these web-forums is different. Plus I've got to remember different usernames and password, and/or enter captcha info each time.

In the time it takes me to open a page to a single web forum I can scan the subjects from a day's email from midrange-l, bulk-delete a bunch of it, and then read 10 messages and reply to 2.

I can (obviously) only speak for myself. But I will not partake in a web-based forum, take _way_ too much time. Email lists, sure, I'll use them all day long.

-Walden