Shaun Ellis <[log in to unmask]>
> I'm not particularly sold on Reddit.  I just think that there are some 
> types of discussions that might be more constructive with a threaded 
> forum than a listserv, [...]

This listserv looks threaded to me.  Maybe you need to upgrade
Thunderbird, although I could have sworn it's done threaded for
a while now.

Personally, I don't think being email-based is the problem.  It's more
about having good facilitators and community organisers... and
code4lib is probably better than many at that.

Unless you do something pretty silly - like insisting everyone
register with github, google or gigabot to take part, or switching the
venue/platform every few cycles - I feel it's more often a challenge
about people than technology.

Even so, I've posted a list of ways people screw up the tech recently:

- some are too difficult to register on (confusing, reCaptcha
  disability-discriminator, no/confusing openID, activation emails
  that never come or just plain buggy);

- some don't have an email help address or online support or phone
  number or something;

- some don't email site members when things happen that they might be
  interested in;

- some don't email site members with summaries of what's happened last
  week/month in case we don't know what they're interested in;

- some don't email site members at all;

- a very very few email site members too much, so people unsubscribe;

- some don't interact well with other websites (refuse to let anyone
  post links ever, don't send trackbacks or pingbacks to let the
  remote site know we're talking about them, make it difficult for us
  to dent/tweet/link to the forum nicely, and so on);

- some have lots of spam (let anyone post lots of links, moderators
  are missing/uncontactable/unaccountable and so on);

- most don't let me back up my data;

- some vanish abruptly and take the community down with them;

- a few have trolls and a few are unfriendly.

(previously posted at
http://forums.cyberunions.org/discussion/111/common-mistakes-of-activist-websites
)

Hope that informs,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/