Hi guys

First of all, I have to admit that I'm biased, since I was the one pushing for a move to a Forum in the first place.

Some of the advantages of Fora have already been mentioned, but I think the main ones (for me, at least) have been left out.

One of the biggest advantages of a forum is organization - you have divisions and subdivisions, which allow you to see clearly the theme of the thread, and to know exactly where to go if you want to look back on something which was written, say, two years ago. This is very big for me - with the collection of academic brains present around here, it's nice to know that, in two years time, for example, I can think "Oh, there was a book recommended for such and such on SASM which would be useful now" and that I can simply go back and get it.

Another nice thing about Fora is that you can add to any thread when you want - say you discovered new information about something that was being discussed a couple of months ago - without having to repeat everything again, because the subject is nicely filed inside a topic.

I think we have the opportunity to create a database of academic knowledge that is easy to consult, to follow, and to read. I think it would be silly to ignore this possibility just because you can't remember another username and password (why don't you just use the same ones you use for e-mail? That's what I do!). As for loading times, the forum I've put together is very simple and fast loading. ( http://www.terrasdalua.org/SASM/forum ) and I can make it even lighter if someone still has problems.

Cheers

Vanda

On 12/16/05, Margaret Gouin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I don't really know much about fora, except that when one discussion
group I was in migrated to a forum I just stopped going there because it
was such a bother having to log in to yet another site and remember
another username and password and so on and so on. It's much easier (and
time-efficient) *for me* to have everything in my e-mail.

I don't know anything about replying to digests since I don't use
digests, so I may be ignoring some real difficulties experienced by
other list members, I'm sorry.

And I do appreciate all efforts by the mods to make the list more
accessible, efficient, etc.

Thanks.

Margaret