This is not a new slogan.
"Join the 21st century" seems somewhat orthogonal to "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I wrote this a year ago, based on much older posts and e-mail: Why I don't like forums
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Tracking
Tracking all the user-ids and passwords for all the various forums is a pain.
Many folks use a separate e-mail alias for each forum, so they know when one starts spamming, adding Yet Another bit of bit of data to track.
Many forums require or encourage the collection and distribution of additional data: birth date, location, Instant Messaging handles, web sites, etc. Some of this may be required to authenticate when you try to recover a password or otherwise get the attention of the administrators. It's Yet Even More data to track and update, in addition to any privacy concerns.
Display
The layout of each forum is completely different. You have to figure out or recall Yet Another scheme before you can figure out what is going on.
Most forums are laid out badly. None of them offers much real customization for end-users. Were it up to me, I'd be able to make every damned one of them look exactly the same when I visited.
Many forums use a layout or style that is pretty much illegible:
Tiny type.
Low contrast text. I'm not sure which is worse, gray on black or lime green on black. No, the worst was deep green on burgundy.
Many forums give way too much emphasis to avatars, signatures, animations, etc. It can actually be hard to find the posts sometimes.
Rigid layouts that make it impossible to resize the screen or browser and see more of the actual posts.
Delivery, Attention
Posts to a mailing list sit on my machine waiting for me. I don't have to remember to visit a forum or find some way to track multiple forums.
Posts from e-mail lists arrive asynchronously and are already delivered, filtered, and sorted by the time I want to read them. With a forum, I have to go get each post or page of posts from each forum I might choose to visit, and they have to be loaded at that time.
Posts that arrive in e-mail can be filtered or organized according to my criteria. Forum posts are organized by the admins and posters into "boards," "sub-boards," and "threads" that are frequently named oddly or just make no sense.
Many forums use some sort of "newness" filter and try to keep track of what is "new" for you -- and do so badly. The user interface to control this feature (if the feature exists, if the user interface exists) range from bad to worse.
Forums show quite a bit of extraneous information. Showing the poster's handle makes sense, but each post also shows: their avatar, the date they joined, their location, title, "status," role, post count, IM handles, login status, and so on. It shows this for EVERY poster in the thread. Then there is the information for EVERY thread: number of views, number of replies, rating, activity level, various status flags, original poster, last poster, time stamp, number of pages of posts, a page list, and so on. Then the information about EVERY post: reply number, a reply-and-quote button, reply button, report button, site tools and links. At the bottom is also the actual time it took to create the page, standards compliance, etc., etc... Where was the content again?
Following discussions in forums requires much more attention than in e-mail.
Let me state this again: Reading posts on forums is much, much more work than reading posts from mailing lists.
I am on numerous high and low volume mailing lists. The incoming posts are tagged and filtered into various mailboxes as messages are delivered. At some point during the day, I'll decide to "glance over" these mailboxes. I may have already filtered and marked certain posts with tag
"I am Google! I find many good things. I find that pair of underwear with the little dice printed all over them. And I watch the tape of you with the life-sized Stallman puppet. These are good unique things. Many keywords and links! My masters will say 'much good job, little robot!' Many searchers will find happy links of Stallman puppet see you! Ahhhh."
Unfortunately, a KVM switch introduces other problems. I've tried this, with limited success: fuzzy video at higher resolutions, poor mouse support, little or no mouse-wheel support, little or no three-button support, etc.
The more capable switches are trying to do more than simply connecting to the target machines. In general, the "dumber" the switch is, the better it should perform as a "game toggle."
-- Dr. Bob
STL (DuBourg, STLSFS, Rivendell, The Shire, Archon, Fontbonne) CA (Planet 10, Realty Fault)
Slashdot Mirror
This is not a new slogan. "Join the 21st century" seems somewhat orthogonal to "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I wrote this a year ago, based on much older posts and e-mail:
Why I don't like forums
========
Tracking
Display
Delivery, Attention
Let me state this again: Reading posts on forums is much, much more work than reading posts from mailing lists.
I am on numerous high and low volume mailing lists. The incoming posts are tagged and filtered into various mailboxes as messages are delivered. At some point during the day, I'll decide to "glance over" these mailboxes. I may have already filtered and marked certain posts with tag
How about the San Jose public library? They say they've got several:
Sinister Forces : A Grimoire Of American Political Witchcraft / Peter Levenda
No idea if the book is any good, but sprinkling a bit a "ZOMG! Suppressed information!" won't make it better.
Perhaps you are referring this story?
I'm a Googlebot! I will not kill you.
Unfortunately, a KVM switch introduces other problems. I've tried this, with limited success: fuzzy video at higher resolutions, poor mouse support, little or no mouse-wheel support, little or no three-button support, etc.
The more capable switches are trying to do more than simply connecting to the target machines. In general, the "dumber" the switch is, the better it should perform as a "game toggle."
-- Dr. Bob
STL (DuBourg, STLSFS, Rivendell, The Shire, Archon, Fontbonne)
CA (Planet 10, Realty Fault)