Chuq Von Rospach <chuqui@plaidworks.com> writes:
> If that's your feeling, then you're so bound to the NNTP client
> interfaces that I don't think you can really judge the web
> interfaces. You're so comfortable in one space than any other space
> can't be comfortable. That's a bad thing to be if you're trying to build
> sytstems in that other space.
> (or as I like to say it, if you're someone who loses your brain when
> you're with a redhead, you can't really judge a contest between
> blondes).
Or I'm just more aware of the feature lists of such clients than you are
and you have no idea what you're missing. :) The basic problem with the
web interfaces, all of them, including Google, is that theeeey'rrree
iiiiincreeeeediblllllly sllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwww. Because they have
to do a round-trip to the server for *every click*.
If Google were actually responsive, it would be usable. It's probably the
best available one.
But I think you've completely missed my point, as stated in my previous
message. The ideal archives have the same interface as *the user's e-mail
client* but with searching. And by "the user's e-mail client," I mean
exactly that. If they use Eudora, it should look like Eudora. If they
use Outlook, it should look like Outlook. If they use Pine, it should
look like Pine. Because that's the interface they already know how to use
and are comfortable with.
If you have *any* other interface, you're making the user learn something
new, and you're going to disenfranchise at least some of the least
computer-savvy in your audience.
>> Saving the archives as mbox files or as separate files per message is
>> probably the best, as the e-mail format is more stable than most
>> anything else.
> God, no. what, flat files and grep? (shudder)
Um, Chuq, just because you keep the archives in that format doesn't mean
that's the format you *use*.
Sure, throw them into MySQL, convert them to HTML, turn them into
Postscript, whatever turns your crank and enables your archives. Just
save a copy of the straight mbox files *too*, since twenty years from now
no one's going to be able to read MySQL databases, but mail clients will
still be able to parse mbox files, at least once they're split on From
headers.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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