1. Chatting vs mailing
I've renamed the thread to avoid stepping on Bernie's toes. :)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Bensler [mailto:bensler at mail.com]
> Ray Smith wrote:
> <SNIP>
> > Two issues with IRC chatting (or any chatting) ...
> >
> > 1. Time differences.
>
> I don't see the relevance of that. We manage fine with the
> mailing list,
> and it's influenced by the same factor.
Yes, but not nearly as much. The other time factor to consider with IRC
(etc) is that both (all) parties must be online simultaneously. This isn't
a factor with the mailing list.
<SNIP>
> We have tried setting up a chat channel for EU, on a number of
> occasions.
>
> It was never supported by RDS though, so the only people who
> knew of the
> chat channel were those who were already a part of the
> mailing list. Of
> those people, only some knew how to connect to a chat
> channel. That made
> for a pretty small attendance in the chatroom.
Personally, I don't see ever using the chatroom, at least not regularly.
Probably the biggest reason is time. I just don't have enough to spend it
like that.
> > > Also, I for one, often have a
> > > hard time explaining what I mean through a single email
> >
> > Emails are so fast these days that alot of mail list emails are
> > answered within 10-20 minutes anyway. This is better service than
> > almost all commercial suppliers of software!
>
> Can you guarantee that I will get an answer for my question
> that I post
> on the list? How long should I wait for a response to my
> question before
> I give up and dig for the answer on my own? I may wait weeks before
> someone responds, or maybe noone ever will.
> On a chat channel, I can ask my question, and within a few
> minutes, I'll
> know if anyone can help me. If I don't get an answer, THEN I could go
> and post to the mailing list, and persue the answer on my own in the
> meantime.
You should try to dig up the answer on your own before you post. It may
take hours or even days before your question is or can be answered.
Consider that in the Eu community, there are people who are experts on
different areas. Through the mailing list, you reach them all. On the chat
side, you have to hope that someone is there who knows the answer, and can
give it to you. Not to mention the time it sometimes takes to come up with
a response. A lot of answers (especially the non-trivial ones) take minutes
to hours to weeks to figure out.
> A chatline would also allow for easier conferencing and collaboration
> for larger projects. People could discuss and share source code in
> realtime.
Maybe you can type and code a lot faster than I can, but I'm not seeing the
benefit of 'realtime' source code sharing vs email/web posting for others to
look at. Not to mention disparate schedules.
> It may take a week or longer to exchange 3 emails with somone
> using the
> mailing list, or email in general. Depending on how often the parties
> check their mail.
>
> The same exchange would take a matter of an hour in a chat room. Code
> can be shared, modified and sent back, pretty much instantaneously.
If someone is spending hours at a time in a chat room, they probably check
their email pretty often. And if they don't check their email more than a
few times a week, they probably won't be spending any time in a chat room.
I'm not trying to say that a chat room won't be a good thing for some
people, but I think that the list serves the purpose far better.
Matt Lewis
