[vcf-midatlantic] Let's add value to the club, and have fun doing it!!!

[Jason Howe]

On 12/26/2015 11:13 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> On 12/26/2015 01:40 PM, Dave Wade via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>> The problem with many forums and especially the Vintage Forums is
>> that you have to visit them to see new posts and there is no decent
>> mobile client. I do visit the Vintage Forums but miss out on many
>> others Atari, Mercedes-Benz, 3D-Printing to name but a few, as these
>> all require explicit visits to see posts. I really don't understand
>> why Forums are better than UseNet news.
>    I think the root of this issue is the type of activity "using the
> Internet" is for different groups of people.  For those people for whom
> getting online is a form of recreation, having time to burn, the "Oh,
> I'll go check over there and see what's going on!" type of "polling"
> system can work well as a leisure-time activity.  But for those of us
> who work in front of a screen, the interrupt-driven nature of a mailing
> list tends to be a lot more efficient.
>
>    I've thought about this a lot over the years, as I try to decipher the
> inexplicable mentality of the "Turn everything on the Internet into a
> WEB PAGE!!" people, and that's the best theory I've been able to come up
> with.
>
>                 -Dave
>
Dave,

Speaking as a professional web guy, I couldn't agree with you more. If 
it doesn't land in my inbox it practically doesn't exist.  Hell, I 
haven't even remembered to check comp.os.vms in like 6 months, and 
that's barely more involved than typing "slrn" in a terminal somewhere.  
The only argument for the "turn it into a webpage" mentality is because 
that's what the customers expect.  Everyone has a web browser open 100% 
of the time, the web is the default graphic terminal of the modern age.  
In my organization, we have CLI and Web Interfaces to many for many of 
our services.  The UI of the CLI is horrendous...The web interfaces were 
written by the CLI folks who couldn't understand why a web interface was 
needed.  UI issues not withstanding, as I've been tasked with going 
through and updating tools, the web interfaces are getting the overhaul, 
the CLI tools are getting ignored. but I digress.

That said there are a few web forums I visit, but I tend to miss a lot 
because I er...miss my polling interval due to high IO wait...er something.

--Jason