[consulting] the Ultimate forum based Malinglist Manager

[Jason Flatt]

On Thursday 29 December 2005 04:36, Bèr Kessels wrote:
>
> I know choice is good. But ATM we have only bads to choose from. I
> therefore think we should work on one working solution. So here is my
> proposal
> :* team up with about 5 people on irc/jabber/skype and write down a good
> : list
> of demands. what do we want, how do we want it and what do we not want.
> * team up with all the people we can get together. I am sure that with
> Civicspace in this, we will get over a hundred people.
> * invite one or two drupal coders.
> * do a fundraise based on what thos coders think they need to get this
> done. * Pay the coders fro+ that fundraise
> * release this forum_ml.module (or maybe even bundle of modules) as The One
> Solution.
> * Write good solid documentation for debian/gentoo/?? to get that one
> chosen ML manager configured to work with this module ....
> * Write good solid documentation on how to configure your drupal system to
> talk to that ml manager,
>

Whoa, Nelly!

While I like the idea of having a simple and easy way to do a forum <-> mail 
list integration, including the setting up of the relevant software, I have a 
strong suspicion that this route of implementation will not unite, but divide 
around a set of scripts, modules and/or documentation.

You're asking us to sign up to using a specific set of softwares just to get 
the ease of a script or module to do the setup for us?  Personally, I would 
rather invest time into learning how to do it with the software I want to use 
and am familiar with, than to have to install and learn some other software, 
especially with something like an MTA or MLM.

Another point on this is that we all don't always have the luxury of 
specifying the software we can use.  I have a project that I would like to 
look at doing a forum <-> mail list integration, where the MLM and the MTA 
have been chosen for me.  I already know, based on this thread so far, that 
the proposed solution will not work for that project because of the software 
choices.

While it may not be the easiest or quickest path, my preference would be for 
coding to standards and specifications rather than softwares.  If someone 
wants to use software that doesn't conform to established standards, then 
they can figure out a way to make it work.  Where as with coding to 
standards, it should be no big deal to use whatever standards compliant 
software we want.

-- 
Jason Flatt
http://www.oadae.net/
jason at oadae.net