Has anybody looked into Disccourse (http://www.discourse.org)? The Dallas Makerspace had the same debate. Originally the DMS used Mailman. We tried to transition to a forum, which some liked because it kept all the content organized in searchable threads and was less punishing on the inbox. Most people continued to use the mailing list if they really wanted everyone to see a post, and many used both. Finally, the DMS found and installed Discourse. This has all the advantages of a forum, but much more flexible a format. It is web based and searchable, using tags (like Gmail) instead of subforums, which allows members more control over what they see. It has a seamless email interface, so members who never wish to use the web interface can continue to use it like a mailing list. And the web interface is really nice, with well though out design principles. You can see the Dallas Makerspace list in action at https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org if you want an example. Maybe it's worth a look. Happy New Year to all! Dave Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Mailman has a web interface for configuration and for access to archives. What the OP is talking about is a web forum, which is a completely different thing.
Right.
Yahoo (and Google Groups) have a middle ground -- web interfaces in which you can create/reply to messages, not just view an archive. The reasons we stopped using Yahoo were administrative. Unfortunately that meant losing some features for people who prefered their web interface, however, there were only a few such people so we opted for a pure list + what's better admin-wise.
Also, there's a great opportunity for someone to write very useful open-source code! :)
-- David Fenyes Greenum Electronics, LLC 700 Gateshead Court Southlake, TX 76092 email: dave@greenumelec.com phone: (469) 454-8346 cell: (214) 289-1407