I must say that while I do agree with Alan on the frustration that mis-naming something can have, as I have experienced it many times, I believe that not all the blame can be laid at their door. Forum seems to have become the catchphrase for almost all web based interactive lists, so misuse of it should, perhaps, almost be expected. Also, just to point out, the phrase earlier about smilies was, while accurate, not an endorsement of such use. As to a change, I am not really one way or the other. Besides, I believe the Looneys want some of the functions to stay seperate, at least the Icehouse Wiki, as that way it remains a fan endevor and one less worry for them. -----Original Message----- From: icehouse-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:icehouse-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan Anderson Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 1:47 PM To: Icehouse Discussion List Subject: Re: [Icehouse] Icehouse / Treehouse forum? On Mar 8, 2008, at 10:04 AM, David Artman wrote: > Yes, you can set a Google Group to behave like a normal mailing > list... > And I realize some confusion, here: I and other haves conflated > groupware with web forums. [insert suitable expletive here] I feel like channeling Emily Latella here. "Oh. That's very different. Never mind." As I watched things develop at the time, Yahoo Groups began as mailing lists, with the ability to archive and read (and respond to) them using web browsers. The Yahoo function wasn't exactly a clone of the egroups mailing list service, but it was close. Google Groups was originally a web-based Usenet interface, with significant enhancements in the past few years to turn the paradigm around and make it possible to think of the web application as a primary interface with email and classic newsgroups as an add-on. It still works best with the rest of the internet if you treat it as a web front end to an email- or nntp-based system. Neither of them is anything like what I imagine most people think of when they hear the term "web forum". Using the wrong word for a concept and then berating folks for being wilfully ignorant when they don't immediately agree with you is not a good way to accomplish anything (except perhaps to reinforce your reputation as a malcontent). It's very frustrating to find out that the argument could have been avoided completely if you had called things by the proper name. I think it's also worth pointing out that your description is backwards from the way things developed: such a group is more of a mailing list with a way to access it via the web, rather than a web forum with a way to access it via email. But in the final analysis, I would have no problem if the mailing lists hosted at lists.looneylabs.com moved somewhere else in order to provide a web interface for people who prefer to do things that way. _______________________________________________ Icehouse mailing list Icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/icehouse