[mythtv-users] Support via email group versus forum??

[Brian J. Murrell]

On Tue, 2017-02-07 at 08:09 +0000, Simon Hobson wrote:
> 
> I think you must have been using "the wrong sort of forum" ;-)

There is no "particular sort".  I'm not exactly sure what you are
trying imply here but I'm tending to not like it.

But to continue the discussion, it's any sort of forum where the owner
is trying to use advertising to make some money from the participation
in the forum.  For just one example, picked out of a google search:

http://www.warriorforum.com/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=navigation-bar&utm_campaign=classic

Another example of a quite popular forum site:

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all

At least it looks like it could be.  The page source has references to
adsbygoogle.  But my adblocker seems to be working there.  :-)

I am sure there are lots of other examples that I won't continue to
list here.

> I'm sure some are malware and ad ridden, but that's not an inherent
> feature of forum software - just a matter of how it's been
> considered.

It doesn't matter about inherent-ness of forum software or not.  It is
what it is.  I am not saying I dislike forum software.  I am saying I
dislike forum sites, which is the forum software plus whatever else the
maintainer decides to bolt-on, like ads which have the potential to
carry malware.

> I've been on mailing lists where every list message comes with
> advertising attached.

An advertisement that could contain, or redirect you to malware?  Note
that my particular objection is not a (tasteful) ad per se.  It's the
potential of an ad to bring along with it malware.

> But the email feature you describe is actually very useful **as a
> forum feature**. It is not, and I assume never ha been, intended as a
> substitute for using the forum - it's a convenience tool that makes
> using a forum much more useful (especially low traffic ones).

No.  When it comes along with a statement that says (more or less)
"Even though you know what the forum post says and you have no interest
in it or responding to it, you must still now visit the forum in order
to continue to get messages/threads e-mailed to you, so, you know, we
can keep our click count up and use that to raise the price of our
ads".

If I can get an e-mail that tells me what new postings say, and only
choose to visit the forum when there is a message I am interested in,
and that continues to happen until I unsubscribe from the thread, that
is good.  But when I have to visit the forum after every single e-mail
just to continue to get new messages e-mailed to me, that is click-
count-driving.

> Examples :
> On one forum (it's one section of the community forum for my ISP) I
> have set to alert me of any new threads/posts. That way, when there's
> activity in that small (and quiet - it can go weeks with no traffic)
> area, I can quickly click the link and see the full thing.

Fair enough.  But are you required to go to the forum on every single
one of those messages you get just to continue to get the next message?
 It sounds like you are not.  So that is NOT what I am talking about.

> Other forums I'm on I don't have this set. I periodically go and skim
> the recent threads and read anything that looks interesting.

Yeah, see, I am way to busy to be adding all of that unnecessary
polling into my life.  It gets very easily forgotten.

> Anything I reply to, and a few I decide to subscribe to because they
> look interesting, gets the treatment you describe - and TBH it's how
> I'd want it. One recent thread grew by several pages (15 posts/page)
> in hours - I wouldn't really want 30, 40, 50, ... emails. When I have
> time, I can go and read some more of the thread (the software keeps
> track of where I got to (or at least, which page) so I can easily go
> to the first page of unread posts.

But on the other hand, you are being forced to visit the forum for
absolutely no other reason than to count a click.  Because properly
threaded, what's so difficult about collapsing or nuking a thread even
with 30, 40, 50 e-mails in it?

> Most of the forums I use have advertising - but it's low key and not
> "in your face". The running costs have to be paid for somehow. I
> don't tend to use ones with a lot of advertising - that's probably
> because there seems to be a correlation between that and me not being
> interested in the subject matter the forum is there for.

Are you sure that advertising is coming free of malware, and will
continue to?

Cheers,
b.
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