On 1/5/07, Lee Sharp <leesharp at hal dash pc dot org> wrote:
>
> I used to be very active on a mailing list for old Chris Craft boats.
>  One of the most active "authorities" on the list.  It went to a
> forum, and I think I have posted twice in two years.  After looking at
> it, I noticed that several other frequent posters left as well.
>

The mailing list isn't going away, and in fact it may remain the most
used source (though I doubt that).  The lists won't change at all.  I
have little doubt that many of the regular contributors, like myself,
won't visit the forum very often for the same reasons as what you
mentioned.  That is the case with pfsense, there are many more active
highly knowledgeable people on the mailing lists.  But the forum is
still vastly more popular than the lists.  Check the posting rate
graph - I'm sure you can tell precisely when the forum opened.
http://gmane.org/plot-rate.php?group=gmane.comp.security.firewalls.pfsense.support

The forum opening actually had a very nice effect on the pfsense lists
because 99% of your n00bs went to the forum, so the noise dropped
substantially.  There are certain people that will never contribute to
a mailing list because they have issues with lists like we have issues
with forums, so there are still plenty of people on the forum to help
those that go that route.

-Chris