Cygwin users forum

[Norv-2]

Hello cygwin users and developers,

I wonder if you would be interested in the existence of a public forum
fully dedicated to cygwin, as an alternative means to get in touch with
other cygwin users and developers, get your questions answered or
provide a helping hand to a less experienced one whenever you may have
the time. I have actually setup one, at http://cygwinusers.org. It is
still work in progress, but please feel free to visit it if you wish.
Still working on looks and features.
It would be very appreciated also if developers and experienced users
would tell whether they would perhaps consider sharing their expertise,
in case this idea of a public forum will be liked by people. I can take
care of everything, less of good support myself, though, as I am rather
an occasional cygwin user.
Either way, this is mostly an interest check, for both more and less
experienced cygwin users. Would you like to have a forum at hand?

I would greatly appreciate your feedback on anything concerning this.

Thank you,
Norv

[Christopher Faylor-8]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 02:37:36AM +0300, Norv wrote:
>Hello cygwin users and developers,
>
>I wonder if you would be interested in the existence of a public forum
>fully dedicated to cygwin, as an alternative means to get in touch with
>other cygwin users and developers, get your questions answered or
>provide a helping hand to a less experienced one whenever you may have
>the time.  I have actually setup one, at http://cygwinusers.org.  It is
>still work in progress, but please feel free to visit it if you wish.
>Still working on looks and features.

Wow.  Rather pushy of you.  We already have a web site.  There is no
reason for anyone to split their time with another one.

cgf

[Dave Korn-6]

Norv wrote:

> Either way, this is mostly an interest check, for both more and less
> experienced cygwin users. Would you like to have a forum at hand?

  Speaking only for myself, the answer has to be "Thanks but no thanks".  We
already have a bunch of mailing lists that I feel serve all my needs entirely
adequately, and I don't want to have to add keeping up with of a whole bunch of
web forums on top of that; it would be extra effort for no practical purpose.

> I would greatly appreciate your feedback on anything concerning this.

  I think you're almost certainly wasting your time and effort in providing what
is really only a redundant duplicate of what already exists(*).  I wish you
luck, and after all this is all free software and anyone can set up any
discussion group or website about it that they want, but I'm not optimistic that
you should expect much to come of it.

  (It does make me wonder if there might not be some degree of latent demand
that would be satisfied by setting up a wiki on cygwin.com, but since I'm not
about to volunteer the time to maintain it, I don't really think I have much
right to an opinion on the matter.....)

    cheers,
      DaveK
--
(*) - To me, the difference between a web forum and a mailing list is negligible
since you tend to have gateways in both directions and places like gmane and
nabble blurring what distinction there once was.

[Christopher Faylor-8]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 11:47:35AM +0100, Dave Korn wrote:
>(It does make me wonder if there might not be some degree of latent
>demand that would be satisfied by setting up a wiki on cygwin.com, but
>since I'm not about to volunteer the time to maintain it, I don't
>really think I have much right to an opinion on the matter.....)

I'm sure there is latent pent-up demand but the effort involved in
keeping it pertinent by weeding out the "In order to fix this problem
just reinstall 3.5 times" and "Follow the ssh directions at website
http:/qwerer.net/" advice would be incredible.  I'm having enough
fun between the Cygwin mailing lists, the Cygwin irc channel, and the
various other venues at sourceware.org where people try to get Cygwin
help.  I shudder at the prospect of a wiki.

OTOH, I think that a true functioning Cygwin bugzilla would probably be
useful at this point.

cgf