webboard v usenet?

[oblio]

I'm a little curious on what people think are the relative advantages of using a webboard over usenet (I mean, isn't this what usenet was DESIGNED for?)

All I can think of is that this can act as the equivilent of a .d group, effectively making discussion easier to find. At the same time, it may do so at the expense of discussion on the main newsgroups. This could lead to a fragmentation of the ab*a community.

I guess there is also the advantage that it is slightly more private (though I suppose that is only as private as a subpeona would allow) :).

I'm not trying to express a pro/con opinion; I'm just trying to evaluate the concept.

-ob

[Jiss]

Simply put, ABA and ABMA are too busy nowadays so it is very easy to miss messages. It's even worse if you are on slow, long retention services and normally have several days of backlog. Normally I see topics I would have liked to have posted about already ended. Some of us do not have ultra-fast connections and cannot keep up to date.

Another good example was the favourite anime poll of which the results were posted recently. The decision on the which anime series/characters should be in the vote was asked some time back but afaik no one noticed it at all.

And yes, this is essentially a.b.m.a.d but rather than going through the abuse from a.c. lusers about why we need a new group, here does the same just as easily. Also, websites related to ng's isn't unusual - hence the faq, undercut's site, etc.

You also gain the advantage of not waiting for servers to accept the new group, and posts here will not spontaneously, sporadically disappear. You won't suffer from the posting server going AWOL, and you miss out on all the former @home people complaining about the one to two day retention of their servers.

Downside is we are trusting Xo to be fair and keep maintaining it - for which I think most here appreciate it

Ultimately, it's an individual's decision to use this or not. if you are looking for a reason why, the above sums up why I've been more prolific here than I've been on ng's for the last half-year.

[Tobias Rieper]

Moving the discussion to here has several advantages:

- propagation:
A message posted here can be read by everyone immediately. No wait for propagation, no fear of crappy servers...

- retention:
Interesting threads will disappear from the group sooner or later. So already discussed things will come up again. But here they are stored permanently.

- mobility:
I'm usually away from home 5:30 to 18:30. During this time I have some time to discuss in the group and access to computers. I can install agent also. But downloading 150000 headers on 56k just to reply a message...
This board is much better if you just want to take a quick look at the threads.

- usability:
You often miss interesting discussions in the header flood of the groups. Here you recognize all new stuff immediately. The different sections and the threading make things here easier too.

- special features:
private messages - good to contact someone without e-mail
polls - a thing with great potential...


A .d group might solve some of these problems too, but not all and it would be hard to establish it.

So far, I see only one con:

- no spell checking
In agent I can at least spell check. But here you have to expect very crappy english from me...



So I'm supporting this board too.

Damn, Jiss left me behind...

T.Rieper

[moodorky]

I like these boards for posting just normal messages.
Downloading headers can be a pain just to check on messages.
This is far more efficient. It forms into a tighter "community" so to speak.

[earthdark]

Well, for those of us without access to Usenet (read: my ISP's news server blows), a webboard like this is very good..

[oblio]

Well, the more I use this, the more I like it.

I still think there is a risk of drawing the voices of sanity away from the posting forum, but I guess I don't think its that big of deal. The bottom line is that it's extremely convenient and it has the right "voice" to the conversations. I'd like to note that there hasn't even been one yenc fight! ^_^

regards,
ob

[xo]

I won't go over what I see as the pros as I think others have covered that pretty well.

I share your concern about fragmentation. Already, a pretty good nucleus is forming here, which I'm happy to see. Still, it's only a fraction of the newsgroup community and I'm not sure where to go from here.

I think I'll "advertise" the board a couple of more times, just so people who might not have seen the original message might notice the 2nd time around. I don't want to spam the newsgroups after that outside of a mention in my .sig or something.

I guess after that, only time will tell. Maybe a critical mass will be reached, maybe the novelty will wear off.

Anyhow, just thinking with my keyboard .

-xo

PS - I've learned to deal with the yenc issue so no fights from me there on that front. This Winrar 3 thing though - argh!

[Onakra]

Like a few of you may know ABSA also has a discussionboard. I thought it was a good idea at the time and it was used a bit (in the first week), but died soon after that. (This board already has more posts then that one.)

It depends a lot on the group I think. Seeing ABSA is so small any discussions can be picked up in the group itself easily. That being said there are not many discussions. I guess the people there have no need for that.

Because the size of ABA/ABMA there are a lot more people who are potentially interested in talking, and like written by others above, it has a lot of benefits in doing it here then in the group. I hope more people will get interested and discuss more things here, since the memberlist is still quite small...


Onakra

[user]

I think we need a more l33t logo for the ABSA forums to draw in the crowds.

Seriously though, I think this forum gets more use because for most people there is more to discuss about anime series and episodes than the music. Of course, as you said, the size of the groups also helps.

[Melchior]

[Keikai]

I, like oblio, have warmed to these BBs and I thank you for them. My initial reaction was mixed. It felt allot like a .d group and, as many of you have probably noticed, I've spoken out against making an ABMAD group. My reasons were mostly related to the problems I've seen occur in other binary groups with .d groups. The primary one is that generally, when there is a .d group, it is made "law" that all discussions go there. This has led to more strife than aid in several groups, IMO.

So, when I saw these, I had an initial, knee-jerk, negative reaction. The indirect effect, however, is that something non-usenet based really cannot be made the _only_ resource for discussion so my primary concern is not applicable.

I agree that "advertising" these BBs is a good idea and mentioning it in sigs is also a good idea. I just would like to recommend to people not to force it down anyone's throat, both because I think it should be an option and also because people will be less likely to adopt it. Frankly I dont think this is even an issue with anyone who is posting here so far, but I just thought I'd mention it since I hope that these BBs will grow.

Are these BBs advantageous? Heck yes. Beyond some of the pros mentioned above I can say from recent experience I learned more from these BBs about the feelings of some of the regulars in one reading session than I usually do in a month. And since I have to base some of the writing in the FAQ on the general feelings of the regulars, this is a good thing. (If its not obvious from the rest of the message I mean this comment as a supplement to usenet discussions not to the exclusion of them. )

[Melchior]

Keikai made some good comments about the risk of forcing the forum on people as a main area of discussion, rather than allowing discussions on the newsgroups, and that's a good point.

I'd like to comment that just because this forum exists, it certainly doesn't mean that I won't participate in discussions on the groups-- it just means that I'll have an easier method of communicating-- one that I can check during the day, rather than the newsgroups which I usually only check once or twice a day in the afternoon/evening.

[Jiss]

Of course if they don't want to go then we won't force them, just they'll have to look through those 'gory' pics from abpea (if you don't know what I'm talking about be thankful!)

[teki]

Another big advantage in usablity is being able to download and look at a whole thread at a time. Is there a newsreader that can do that? groups.google.com does, but they don't cover alt.binaries groups at all.

[AlienBoy]

I have always been a huge fan of web boards. Organization would be my main argument for boards over Usenet. Even with a discussion group, what reader do you know that splits messages up into categories? Retention is also a great bonus. If someone jumps in on a conversation which has a starting thread that has already been deleted off their server, things can get really confusing. I probably have more reasons, but it's early and I can't seem to get into that "Message-writing" mode. Maybe some lucky charms or a quick journey to WaHo can remedy that....