[TheForge] okay i am bored so here is an offer

[Steve Smith]

Terry L. Ridder wrote:

> hello;
> 
> okay, it is the holiday season and nothing is going
> to happen till some time next year the the numerous
> court trials so i am bored. it has been several years
> since ron reil edited theforge and created several
> 'the best of theforge' zipped archives. since i am
> a prisoner here for the winter months i was thinking
> that i could do something useful like create a faq
> for theforge. i was also thinking of creating an
> index of the theforge archives. 
> 
> any thoughts, input, comments, suggestions, etc
> are welcomed. 

I think an archive is incredibly useful. I'm not sure how necessary a 
faq is (if we have an archive). We don't seem to have enough messages 
asking the same questions to be a problem.

I realize an email's subject line isn't very accurate, but indexing on 
subject would allow automating the data collection. This could be 
something always available up to current date, while a more intelligent 
archive (such as Ron put together) only happens when a brave soul steps 
forward.

Another thought is simply collecting all of TheForge's mail and using an 
email search program to let users find what they want. This has the 
advantage of not taking anything like the effort of what Ron did. A 
drawback: I don't know if there is an "email search program" which works 
well. Mozilla Thunderbird 0.9 talks about searches, but I don't know how 
well it works, not having tried it. This could be really useful *and* 
easy to set up if the software is there. Google desktop search prefers 
Microsoft products (although you have to wonder if the other shoe is 
going to drop soon, they are rumored to be working with the Firefox folks).

My random thoughts,
Steve