for the feedback guys! I used Outlook express when I was into
newsgroups way back when and it worked pretty well I guess. I didn't
care to much for downloading the messages headers. When I stumbled
into the site, viewing it with Outlook Express didn't even cross my
mind. Web is much easier for me, as I may access it from different
computers. > >Most of the communities that I hang out in use phpBB -
which I think is the greatest. The responses automatically move up to
the top, it's easy to find your own stuff, search are more refined,
colors, fonts, formatting, polls, you name it! > >Since we all agree
that this interface is so bad, I wish someone would change it. DO YOU
HEAR US MICROSOFT! WE (okay, just a few of us) HAVE SPOKEN!!!! >
You may be unhappy with _your_ inteface, but mine is fine.
BTW; your lines need wrapping.
I "hang out" in this group and watch all the subject lines go by,
learning things and contributing, once in a while. Since I've been
away for a couple days the's a 1800 message backlog. I use TRN
newsreader in a shell account on my ISP's system. I'll get thru this
backlog in about 100 seconds, hitting SHIFT-D key about once a second
to see the next 20 subject lines in threaded mode. The hands will
never leave the home position on the keyboard, let alone require a
reach for the mouse. (If I stop to read a message or compose an
answer to one, it will obviously take more time.)
To read this group in a GUI newsreader is about 20-1 loss in
productivity IMHO. Web bbs chat groups are ever worse;
- Each chat group has it's own navigation that has learning curve.
- Search capabilities vary
- the bbs chat groups are not archived in google news (aka DejaNews)
- Finding old messages via the web search engines is spotty.
- The message display and threading can be bizzare.
- If the bbs is cookie-based I have to re-read stuff, and loose settings
if I try to use the bbs frommore than one machine. With TRN/Usenet
all my "state" information is stored on the server. I can read
usenet from any PC and always get just the unread messages.
I groan whenever something I need to come up to speed on a new chat
group. With TRN, I can add a newsgroup to my list and when I see it
for the first time see that there are many thousand unread messages.
If I think it's useful can blow the history in a few minutes.
I don't hang out in _any_ bbs chat groups. I find it a very
unproductive use of my time.