[kwlug-disc] Anyone know of a free web forum equivalent to Google/Yahoo Groups?

[unsolicited]

Maybe I'm just thinking old school terminology here with the word 'forum'.

Really, I'm thinking virtual internet cafe. Not much different than 
the LUG meetings, particularly the after-meeting round table discussions.

But internet cafe seems to mean a coffee house where pcs are around.

I'm thinking more where you use your pc to get to the cafe. File 
sharing, bulleting boards, discussion groups, FAQs, etc.

I'd have called this a forum. But that could be so yesterday.

unsolicited wrote, On 09/30/2009 3:33 PM:
>  From my own experience, and having read 
> http://producingoss.com/en/index.html some months back I am sensitive to 
> your point, and I can appreciate why you might point it out.
> 
> The forum I am considering has not yet started so it's not a question of 
> forking now but of making sure an ability to fork is present, should it 
> occur. (It will.)
> 
> I could just create multiple google/yahoo groups but then the 
> administrative duplication seems silly when ultimately the goal is to 
> keep the community cohesive as a whole while letting SIGs happen.
> 
> e.g. If your interest is hardware, you might 'subscribe' to news, 
> general, and hardware. Another might be software oriented. But both want 
> to step into the 'newsroom' together.
> 
> So, the community could vote to create a SIG, or not, but couldn't even 
> vote if the ability to create the SIG weren't present in the first place.
> 
> (I'm looking for more than a simple mailing list, too.)
> 
> 
> Richard Weait wrote, On 09/30/2009 1:34 PM:
>> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 4:49 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>>> Anyone know of a free web forum equivalent to Google/Yahoo Groups?
>>>
>>> Yahoo groups appears to have more functionality than Google, but neither
>>> appear to have the concept of 'sub-forum' (sub-groups?).
>>
>> Nope.
>>
>> I can offer some experience from the OSM community though.  Wait! I'm
>> not going to ramble on about how amazing OpenStreetmap is or why you
>> should participate... Ooops.  Sorry.
>>
>> Right.  Experience from OSM.
>>
>> There are dozens of OSM mailing lists for sub groups, for different
>> languages, special interests, etc.  One predictor of a successful
>> branch group is the reason for requesting the new group.
>>
>> If a sub-group wishes to have a new list so they aren't drowned out by
>> discussion on the main list, do not create the sub-list.
>>
>> If a sub group is so prodigious that they threaten to drown out the
>> main group, create a sub-list for them.
>>
>> There are other issues as well, but watch this one before you divide
>> your community into some many sub-groups that they all fail for lack
>> of critical mass.
> 
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