Migrating the SDK forum from Yahoo groups?

[fxnut]

Hi, I was just interested to know if Newtek had any plans to move the SDK plugin forum from Yahoo groups over to this forum here. It seems strange to have it separate. Not to mention Yahoo groups are a real pain for trying to navigate threads and it makes the whole process a bit hit and miss.

From what I know about PHP and MySql, I'm sure it'd be possible to at least partially automate the transfer of the old threads from Yahoo onto the vBulletin system so that all the information that has built up over the years doesn't get lost.

Having said that, since LW8 is coming up, why not use that as an excuse to create an SDK forum for LW8 and above?

Regards

Andy

[mattc]

Ernie already answered this question for you on the SDK mailing list.

"This list doesn't belong to NewTek, though. Like the other Yahoo LW lists and the LW newsgroup, it was started by users, is still maintained by users, and has no official connection to NewTek. NewTek doesn't own the archive and has no control over the content of messages posted here."

To refresh your memory....

M.

[Elmar Moelzer]

Yupp, but I too would really welcome moving away from the yahoo- groups. IMHO, they are just plain awfull to read.
And I have to use the account of a friend, for me that registration somehow never ever worked.
CU
Elmar

[Lightwolf]

How about NT just setting up a normal ML for developers? They do have a a mailing list server set up (friends @ newtek), I think the LScript ML uses that one as well.
I'd prefer a normal mailing list.
Cheers,
Mike

[fxnut]

Originally posted by mattc
To refresh your memory....

Umm, yeah thanks Matt for that. Surprisingly my memory isn't as bad as you seem to think! :rolleyes:

The reason I repeated the question here was to try and get an official Newtek response to this issue and to find out if they had any plans to provide Newtek endorsed support for those of us using the SDK. I also wanted to try to drum up a bit of support for the idea of adding an SDK forum to the list of LW forums here.

Andy

[cagey5]

Yeah but that wasn't what you asked for. You were asking Newtek to port over a goup from Yahoo that has nothing to do with them. It can't happen.

[fxnut]

Yep, my original post was badly worded by making it appear that I thought that Newtek was in ownership of the forum (which I didn't, cause I'd already got the reply from Ernie). If you re-read the post above though, I never said that Newtek owned the forum.

By asking if Newtek were going to move the forum (which is the bit you mentioned), all I meant was if they would consider copying all the threads from the Yahoo forum across into the vBulletin system, which is something that anyone can do with some basic PHP and MySql skills and doesn't require ownership of the Yahoo forum at all. It was badly worded I admit, and did make it appear that I was under the mistaken impression that Newtek owned the Yahoo forum.

[mattc]

Assuming, of course, that the majority of people wanted to move to the vb forum, which, really is a PITA for the most part. The existing mailing seems to work fine for most people.

M.

[fxnut]

Sure, fair point. I just find the thread navigation difficult and all those adverts a tad intrusive for my taste. I was thinking it'd make sense bringing all the forums over into one place.

I can see it might cause problems though, with people not sure which forum to use. Not to mention, someone also emailed me saying

"...most of the help on the yahoo group is also from former NewTek employees not current ones. I don't know that they would jump at the chance to help out NewTek instead of helping the people directly."

..which is a good point. The thought of losing the invaluable assitance from Ernie and Arnie is enough to put me off the idea, but surely there must be a Newtek LW SDK guru able to perform a similar outstanding service? I think you have to admit that it does seem odd that there's a forum for LScript and not the SDK.

[Lightwolf]

Originally posted by fxnut
Sure, fair point. I just find the thread navigation difficult and all those adverts a tad intrusive for my taste. I was thinking it'd make sense bringing all the forums over into one place.
Hm, I see, you use the web interface. That one does suck indeed...
I use Opera for my mails, and it automatically detects mailing lists and even display threads properly.

Cheers,
Mike

[cagey5]

Well I still have to disagree. You can't just go copying swathes of messages from other boards because you think it'd sit better somewhere else. I'm sure Yahoo will have it in their terms of service some sort of copyright limitation. So in this case I think ownership of the forum would be a necessity

[Adrian Lopez]

I suggested the same thing to Chuck Baker via email and he said he'd pass it along to the people at Newtek. I don't see a new forum showing up anytime soon, which is a real shame.

The fact that you can't copy posts from Yahoo's mailing list to the new forum is mostly irrelevant. The inability to migrate posts from Newtek's old forum to the new forum didn't stop the new forum from becoming very useful. As for the argument that people wouldn't bother to migrate, I'm sure the official forums would attract a lot of people simply for being official. It's not as if Newtek's forums are the only forums where people discuss Lightwave.

The loss of Ernie and Arnie's help might be significant, but I'm sure there are people at Newtek who could take over their roles. Besides, will Ernie and Archie be posting a lot to the SDK mailing list now that they work for Luxology?

[Alan Daniels]

Originally posted by mattc
Assuming, of course, that the majority of people wanted to move to the vb forum, which, really is a PITA for the most part. The existing mailing seems to work fine for most people.

I can understand that. I wish VBulletin had a "Google Groups" look-n-feel mode I could toggle.