[C320-list] Re; Forum Architecture

[Graeme Clark]

Doug

There are loads of forum style bulletin boards that are free, although it may be the case that those with the features needed may come at a cost -  but a very small cost, almost certainly a ‘one-off'

I’m more than happy to investigate if there’s any interest?

I take your point that it’s great when the emails just arrive, BUT, its also great when replies just happen too, and to reply to a request in the current system is somehwat cumbersome

I am currently a member of many other forums where you can opt to receive email notification of any new message posted,when it’s posted, or have a daily summary or  choose to follow a sub forum, or just a thread etc.

There are many other Catalina Owners forums out there - it cant be too hard to talk to their admins and find out what they use, and how they do it, to say nothing of the equivalent with other manufacturers associations.

We dont have many Catalinas in the UK so one thing that surpised me when I discovered this great site and association was that it was actually divided by boat type!  There must be just tons of useful generic info in the other Catalina forums that we neevr get to see unless its picked up for an article in mainsheet maybe.

All the best

Graeme 
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Graeme, 

Probably because it's free, and works with no fiddling by anyone. 

Also, in the past, it was felt that we might lose some people who "just 
prefer email" but now that there are gateways to allow forums to accept 
email sending and receiving, (phorum allows this with the external 
phorummail module and mailinglist module), we really should look at the 
possibility. Then we get the best of both worlds... 

On the other hand, there have been times when I've gotten a quick 
response to a cry for help on some issue during the off-season and I 
wonder how quickly that response would have come if there were fewer 
people reading a forum when sailing is not on their mind. Email comes to 
you - you have to go looking for a web forum. 

Just my $0.02. 

--- 
Doug Treff 
Catalina 320 - 1996 - September Song - #350 
http://savvysailor.blogspot.com/ 
do... at treff.us