Do we need both the Forum and the Discussion Group?

[Richard Russell]

Every so often this topic deserves another airing, and as it hasn't been discussed for some while perhaps now is a suitable time.

Currently we have the BBC BASIC Forum (where I am writing this post) and the BBC BASIC Discussion Group. The main difference between them is that the Forum is accessed on the web (albeit that it can alert you by email when a new post appears) whereas the Discussion Group is principally an email mailing list (although it does have a web interface as well).

Historically this has been to meet the needs of two largely non-overlapping groups of people: those who are most comfortable with using the web (probably in a younger age group more used to social media etc.) and those who are perhaps distrustful of the web or don't have a fast internet connection, and rely on old-fashioned email (I hesitate to say that this is probably an older demographic).

To try to integrate these a little, there is an automatic forwarding mechanism causing every post to the Forum also to appear at the Group (with the tag #feed to indicate that this is where it came from). Unfortunately there is no reverse mechanism, so if somebody replies at the Group to one of these forwarded messages it is unlikely to be seen by the Original Poster (or by me).

The forwarding also has a number of limitations, the worst of which is probably that code listings get garbled because the forum software (phpBB) stupidly strips out all of the line terminations, causing the code to appear as one very long line at the Group. Another shortcoming is that attachments (images and other files) and embedded videos don't appear 'visibly' at the Group.

This largely forces anybody receiving one of the automatically-forwarded messages in his email inbox to click on the link to the Forum and view it online, defeating the entire purpose of the Group. So the question inevitably arises: do we still need the Discussion Group? With the number of active users of my BASICs having fallen significantly, would it be better to encourage everybody to 'meet up' at the same place?

[Phil_Thatcham]

I vote for the (this) forum.

Demographic: I was quite old when Usenet was quite young.

pt

[Richard Russell]

I vote for the (this) forum.

Thanks. I deliberately didn't make this a poll, because it's probably not something best determined 'democratically'. We have few enough users as it is to lose any by closing down either place, and since both are hosted 'for free' there's no particular incentive to do so. But if some (or all) current Discussion Group members can be persuaded to cross to the 'dark side' all to the good!

[Ric]

I'd prefer if there had to be one if it were this one, I don't like the email based format.

I was in primary school when the BBC Micro was launched.

[Flatlander]

I prefer the forum.

[DDRM]

FWIW, I check the forum regularly (usually every day, unless I'm away), and the groups.io site occasionally (maybe once a month, unless there's some particular prompt to do so). I always access the latter via the web interface (I don't need my email cluttered up with stuff...).

Best wishes,

David

[hellomike]

I prefer the/this forum.

[Leo]

I prefer this forum.