SUGGESTION: Mail list enhancement: WSN Support

WSN Support » WSN Forum » SUGGESTION: Mail list enhancement » SUGGESTION: Mail list enhancement

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Favorite/Preferred discussion platform
Web Forum (Web Browser)	Paul, mrowton	2	67%
Mail List (E-Mail Client)	zippo	1	33%
News Group (NNTP Client)		0	0%
3 votes

SUGGESTION: Mail list enhancement

zippo
Forum Regular

Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Jan 11, 2006
Total Topics: 48
Total Posts: 166

Posted 04/30/06 - 10:25 AM:	#1
Back several months I wrote via e-mail, basically the same as presented below. Just figured I would post the idea again. Before licensing WSN Forum, I like most probably, had tried various scripts. There is a void in forums that also provide mail list functionality. AFAIK the only one (single source & integrated) that is still webboard, a windows product. Some of the popular linux forum scripts offer gateway options to stand-along list managers but that really isn't optimal IMO. The one and only product I found for linux is Mailgust, an abandoned script. Although it works the fact that it's out of developement is a big detrement. Some users of the script, also with PHP skills, use it and are quite content with their custom versions. Mailgust combines web forum, mailing list and newsletter into one. It really would be nice to have a web forum + mail list fused together. Or possibly a web forum and NNTP capabilities. I suspect the former would be more feasable and popular though. In my experiences there are two camps, those that favor web based forums and those that favor mail lists -- sometimes to the point that refusal to use one or the other, as a contributing user. Clearly the fusion of the two in such a case can help draw the maximum user base for a forum.. The major contender in this sort of community being yahoogroups. Anyhow, in my research many months ago I found countless people willing to PAY for someone to modify/install/get working/de-bug/etc Mailgust, all mostly to no avail. I presume PHP authors just don't want to reverse the PHP and take the project on for whatever reasons. Anyhow, it would be awesome if someday I were able to find such a product, I favor mail lists. Logic is that since I already use/have a good message client for e-mail, this is the best place to store/archive and utilize electronic messages. As demonstrated with the loss of the dedicated WSN Forum, the ability to maintain my own archive of the messages is a fragile relationship with the web server. Additionally, making available the old forum is a precarious task for the webmaster, if there is one (case of a forum just going away, site closing). Sometimes this means a wealth of information is lost forever, with web based forums..

zippo
Forum Regular

Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Jan 11, 2006
Total Topics: 48
Total Posts: 166

Posted 04/30/06 - 10:40 AM:	#2
(not sure if editing the first message would somehow break the poll, so adding a follow up) Wanted to mention also, that since email clients also have (usually) spelling checkers, the mail list also could add some core features indirectly to WSN Forum even if they are not used or available in the web based forum. Anyhow, just some thoughts that perhaps will have some meaning to the rest of the WSN Forum customer base and/or perhaps offer some direction that might infuse more excitement about this great script, WSN Forum.

Paul
Administrator

Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 21, 2001
Location: Northern California
Total Topics: 55
Total Posts: 5703

Posted 05/07/06 - 10:40 PM:	#3
Even if I learned this whole new area, it seems to me that it would be a very high-support matter since there's no way to automate configuring someone else's mail server. I already use/have a good message client for e-mail Really? I've never met one. Thunderbird is indescribably ghastly, Opera mail has some nice points but is still really quite annoying and lacking, kmail is nothing special. Gmail is decent but it's a web service, not a client. It's a mess for me to find old emails or remember who someone is and follow conversations in emails, compared to forums. As far as newsgroups go, seems to me they've been dying a very slow but very sure death for ages (even google groups can't change the fact that the only thing they're known for is spam). Your average internet user probably doesn't even know what a newsgroup is these days. Edited by Paul on 05/07/06 - 10:47 PM

zippo
Forum Regular

Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Jan 11, 2006
Total Topics: 48
Total Posts: 166

Posted 05/26/06 - 09:42 AM:	#4
True about the nntp.. Pretty old school these days apparently. I use The Bat! for my e-mail client. Although I remain with the last version in the 2.xx version level and without getting into the IMAP vs. POP3 area I will add that I use only the POP3 protocol with this client. On the fly spelling, message threading via user preferred method, simple/portable msg base format and easily handles tens and even hundreds of thousands of messages, fast, safe non-MS html engine. Anyhow, I'd certainly consider utilization of this sort of feature as advanced and inactive post install. I've not pondered it too much but drawing upon the years of fidonet hubbing I've done in the past, the main parts would be to have a message tosser/scanner -- a means to parse .msg files for import to WSN Forum and vice versa (or perhaps simply use PHP for sending). If somehow WSN Forum could duplicate a single post and save as a .msg file and look for .msg files the lower level stuff might be merely a matter of some shell scrips and cron -- lets soley to the user to implement. BTW: The Bat! is/has been reported to work quite well under wine. I am still pretty much windows for my workstations..

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