[Coco] Pros and Cons

[James Dessart]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:

> (1) Flexibility: Web accessible and E-Mail accessible (does the email 
> gateway still work?)

Not email accessible. The gateway shouldn't be set up again for the
reason I stated in my last email.

On the other hand, I'm willing to give anyone who wants one a gmail
invitation to be used just for the CoCo list, if they can't stand using a
POP or IMAP client.

> (2) Tied to Google, the largest search engine in use.

Aren't the list archives?

> (3) Anyone looking for CoCo related discussions on the Internet can 
> easily find it.

Again, if the list archives can be indexed for search, then it's taken
care of.

If we want more people to more easily find the mailing list, we need to
advertise it on all our pages. The more links to it on pages indexed by
search engines, the better visibility.

> (4) Google logs all posts for archival.

Doesn't the mailing list server?

> Cons to bit.listserv.coco:
> (1) Susceptible to SPAM (is this still the case?)

(2) It's a newsgroup. Modern internet usage does not, for the most part,
includee newsgroups. It's all web, IM and email. Most people have no clue
what usenet is.

> Pros to maltedmedia:
> (1) Closed list requiring membership (some might see this as a Con; I 
> do)
> 
> Cons to maltedmedia:
> (1) Closed list requiring membership (some might see this as a Pro, but 
> I don't)

If someone isn't willing to stand up and be counted, why should they be
allowed to stand up and speak?

> (2) Not as easily accessible as bit.listserv.coco

Quite the inverse, I'd say. To access newsgroups you need to first have a
newsgroup client, then a newsgroup server, or to use google's groups
interface.

> (3) Not the "traditional" list (may not mean as much to some)

"Traditional" and "out-dated" can sometimes be synonyms. As far as I'm
concerned, newsgroups have outlived their usefulness.

James