Re: The Gramps Discourse forum needs members.

On 05/05/2025 16:14, Emyoulation--- via Gramps-users wrote:
> One of the measures of a software application is the number of
> registered users in its official forum.

Possibly. It's not a measure I use, but I'm sure some people find it useful.

> Right now, the number is far too low for https://gramps.discourse.org 
> And the activity in this mailing list has fallen to almost nothing.

It was never particularly high. I take that as a marker of ease of use.

> Part of that may be because people can browse the Discourse without
> joining. It is harder to "lurk" as a non-member to a mailing list.

Only if the mailing list has no searchable threaded archive.
Joining lists and forums requires intent.
When a new user has a question which is not answered by a search, they 
usually have to join in order to post.

What is missing in almost every community I have been in which has had 
this discussion (lots of them) is a mailing list AND a web forum which 
use the SAME archive of posts (in other words, you get to see the same 
posts regardless of the method of access). This is not rocket science 
(or if it is, there are several rocket scientists who can help).

In most cases where discourse is shared (ie accessible via mailing list 
and via a web forum), one or other method is regarded as primary and the 
other as secondary, usually because one cohort of experience prefers one 
or the other method.

"All the hot kids want a web forum"
"No-one uses e-mail nowadays"
"All the experienced users want a mailing list"
"I don't want to have to GO somewhere to see posts; I want them to come 
to me."
"Nobody wants Yet Another ***** App"

> Despite the years of existence and the number of downloads, the
> member count makes Gramps look insignificant. But you can help.

Excellent, but IMNSHO this is tackling the problem from the wrong end.

Can we find a system which provides a concise, compact view of messages, 
threaded, indexed, and searchable, which has both an email and a forum 
interface? There are several commercial applications used for support 
but they are uniformly HORRIBLE in presentation and very limited in 
facilities.

I'm lucky: once I got used to Gramps' way of working, I have had very 
few queries, and therefore low list/forum usage, because the Gramps 
software does 99% of what I want, and the 1% I would like is never going 
to be written. Other people have radically different needs.

Peter



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