4 ms·

> The reason so many people in specific tech circles are mad about top posting I think is because specific tech circles still do text based mailing lists as a f

by u801e 7y ago

> The reason so many people in specific tech circles are mad about top posting I think is because specific tech circles still do text based mailing lists as a form of persistent group communication. Discussions on mailing lists are typically in depth and not just one line responses to one line questions, so top-posting would make it much more difficult to engage in those discussions. Though, I've never really understood the use of a mailing list over a private moderated newsgroup that people could subscribe to.

alkonaut 7y ago
What does a newsgroup offer in 2020 that a discourse instance or similar doesn’t? It feels like text from the same category as the text-only mailing list.
- u801e 7y ago
  The ability to use your own client. For instance, I can use Thunderbird. Another person can use XNews. A third person could use gnus. Many news clients have sophisticated client side filtering capabilities. I haven't used discord, but based on some brief google searches, these appear to be features that discord lacks that news clients have.
  - alkonaut 7y ago
    > The ability to use your own client. You will always have limitations. I think it's safe to say that most people consider "no images" or "no UTF" to be much more limiting than "no custom clients" or "no terminal support". Btw I said "discourse" not "discord" (but both are useful for communication - the latter is a realtime voice app popular among gamers. The former is likely the best forum implementation around).
    - u801e 7y ago
      > I think it's safe to say that most people consider "no images" These can be done via attachments depending on the rules of the newsgroup > or "no UTF" That's entirely a client-side issue. Thunderbird, for example, has no problem rendering UTF-8 characters in email or newsgroups. > Btw I said "discourse" not "discord" Ah, I thought you had made a typo. I have not heard of discourse, and it doesn't appear that you can use it in offline mode (like you could with an email/news client. As for the other features like images, url embedding, etc., they are features I don't personally find very useful and they also detract from the actual content (based on my experience using Slack). In fact, I disable all those features in Slack so that I don't have to deal with constant visual distraction of animated gifs or emojis. Looking at discourse.ubuntu.com, it doesn't make it obvious who replied to whom via a nested threaded structure like you would see here on HN or on reddit, and there's no thread overview pane where you can jump to a post you're interested in. It also seems to rely on central based moderation rather than allowing for client side moderation. That is, moderation that's entirely within the client's control rather than relying on an administrator. > The former is likely the best forum implementation around). Yet, sites like HN or reddit that don't normally show images, animated emojis or show URL previews work well for their intended audience. But even those websites make it difficult to see new posts since you last viewed the thread and jump to posts you're interested in.

by u801e 7y ago

alkonaut 7y ago

What does a newsgroup offer in 2020 that a discourse instance or similar doesn’t? It feels like text from the same category as the text-only mailing list.

u801e 7y ago
The ability to use your own client. For instance, I can use Thunderbird. Another person can use XNews. A third person could use gnus. Many news clients have sophisticated client side filtering capabilities. I haven't used discord, but based on some brief google searches, these appear to be features that discord lacks that news clients have.
- alkonaut 7y ago
  > The ability to use your own client. You will always have limitations. I think it's safe to say that most people consider "no images" or "no UTF" to be much more limiting than "no custom clients" or "no terminal support". Btw I said "discourse" not "discord" (but both are useful for communication - the latter is a realtime voice app popular among gamers. The former is likely the best forum implementation around).
  - u801e 7y ago
    > I think it's safe to say that most people consider "no images" These can be done via attachments depending on the rules of the newsgroup > or "no UTF" That's entirely a client-side issue. Thunderbird, for example, has no problem rendering UTF-8 characters in email or newsgroups. > Btw I said "discourse" not "discord" Ah, I thought you had made a typo. I have not heard of discourse, and it doesn't appear that you can use it in offline mode (like you could with an email/news client. As for the other features like images, url embedding, etc., they are features I don't personally find very useful and they also detract from the actual content (based on my experience using Slack). In fact, I disable all those features in Slack so that I don't have to deal with constant visual distraction of animated gifs or emojis. Looking at discourse.ubuntu.com, it doesn't make it obvious who replied to whom via a nested threaded structure like you would see here on HN or on reddit, and there's no thread overview pane where you can jump to a post you're interested in. It also seems to rely on central based moderation rather than allowing for client side moderation. That is, moderation that's entirely within the client's control rather than relying on an administrator. > The former is likely the best forum implementation around). Yet, sites like HN or reddit that don't normally show images, animated emojis or show URL previews work well for their intended audience. But even those websites make it difficult to see new posts since you last viewed the thread and jump to posts you're interested in.