Hi Julian. I think it could be useful as a supplementary to the mailing list. I don't think just another forum, like forums.debian.net, or debianhelp.org, would serve any purpose, though. But, if the forum could be combined with the mailing list somehow, that would be useful. Similar to the archives (http://lists.debian.org/users.html), but with expanded functionality. For instance, I found your post at http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/09/msg01852.html, yet, when I hit the "Reply to: debian-user@lists.debian.org", my email client (Thunderbird) pops up, with the subject being "Re: Re: debian forum", without any of the posting that I'm responded to being included. I'm better off sticking with the mailing list using my email client. If a forum could include postings from those using the mailing list, and, postings within the forum could go to the mailing list as well, that would be great. For instance, I reply to a post to the mailing list within the forum, and it generates an email to the mailing list as well. And, those using email and not the forum to access the Debian Mailing List also have their postings appear in the forum, would keep the users high. An advantage to people using a forum interface would be to decrease redundant postings. For instance, now, when someone sees a posting to the mailing list that reads, "I use gnomebaker for burning CDs, but I like KDE's interface. Is there a KDE program for burning CDs." Almost automatically you'll have ten users respond, "Yes, you can use K3B". If more people were to use a forum interface, that was nested, they'd see that the K3B suggestion had already been made, and would not be redundant about it (granted, I use the Debian User Digest; so, perhaps the redundancy is not such an issue for those who do not use the digest, and get responses sooner -- that said, for getting responses sooner, I think a forum set up is better than getting unmanageable email numbers).Hi All, I would be willing to setup a Debian Forum for the users of this mailing list on my web servers. Would there be much interest out there for this? If so, with some suggestions we can go ahead with this at some pace and have it up and running in a day or so. Julian
To conclude, what I'm trying to say is I feel it would be useful to set up a forum interface to the Debian Mailing List, rather than setting up a new separate forum from the mailing list.
Mark