With a forum, you can unclutter your mailbox, and also the forum system can always tag messages according to a timeline/subject/thread whatsoever, so if you are really busy (are we not all busy ... its a hobby of course) then just wait to log on, and then when you do, the system can show you (if desired) all of the unread messages in the various topics you are subscribed to (Think: USENET Newsgroup style focus) unless you wish to say "catchup" and then all is marked as read.
In your current system of receiving messages from the "amsat-bb" mailing list, unless you have a very large mailbox and never delete your message pool, you are (we are..) all keeping separate message copies for each and every reply, instead of just the delta's for each message kept on a server somewhere. This method is not only bandwidth inefficient, it also means YOU the user are responsible for tracking your threads and keeping up to date. Would you not wish to lessen your burden just a little bit by having the system keep track of where you are in your hobby ?
If you like, the forum can also mail all relevant postings to you as regular SMTP mail, so if you don't like the forum, that's ok too.
-samudra N3RDX
On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Tony Langdon vk3jed@gmail.com wrote:
At 08:37 AM 10/27/2009, Samudra Haque wrote:
Yes, I usually take care to divide my correspondence amongst the particular groups I am working with, and this is also the basis in which I recently proposed moving to (a) moderated forum (such as phpBB) or (b) sub-dividing the amsat-bb list into amsat-engineering
If AMSAT goes to a forum, I'm out of here, I can't cope with the volume of messages on a forum, much easier in email. Email lists can be moderated too, but the separation might be a good way to simplify ITAR compliance.
73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com