7 Mar
2005
7 Mar
'05
7:34 a.m.
Any advantage
it might yield over the vagaries of SMTP has little to do with
its perceived ease of use or accessibility. I'm forced to use web boards for
some esoteric topics, but I get enough vintage computing on Usenet and other
mailing lists, so I wouldn't make the jump. I don't like pull media.
(Scratching head: Web forums not easy to use or accessible? Classic computing not esoteric?
Increasingly not. Lots of retro dabblers these days.
Mail reading (as opposed to delivery) is push, not
pull?)
Well, in a highly pedantic sense, yes, just about any content delivery method
is ultimately pull because you have to sit there and read it. But I don't
have to go to multiple web boards and check for new postings; I just check
my E-mail. It doesn't disturb my daily routine by making me do more tasks,
and I get the content I want because the messages are already there waiting
for me.
Some will argue that the boards that send out notification of new topics by
E-mail fix this problem, but then what you've got is ... a mailing list. And
you still have to check the board to see the whole thread.
--
---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- ACTUAL CLASSIFIED AD: Parachute, used once, never opened, small stain. $100