while we're at it have any of the project owners thought about using mailing lists instead of forums?
personally I prefer mailing lists over forums, what do you guys think?

Because we have users who are not only new to Hibernate, but also new to Java, the Internet and everything else in general :)

We're thinking about adding a users mailinglist and linking it with the forum though. Stay tuned.

I would think someone trying to use Hibernate would have a decent grasp of Java, Internet, email and computer basics to know subscribe and read the emails from a mailing list :)

From my point of view, it is MUCH easier to follow a whole thread with this format. It makes answering questions significantly easier when I can see the whole history of an issue at once.

Actually, mailing lists are a pain in the ass for the list administrator.

It's very nice to be able to quickly see the whole thread for any given post. But I would rather not come out to this site to check for new messages all the time. Thankfully, this forum supports email notification for both replies to messages you posted and for new messages posted by other people. I just turned those options on in my profile, set up a filter in my mail client, and I get the best of both worlds.

Joe

The point is: No one today is able to write "good" e-mails and quote in a way (not at the top of the previous message!) so everyone can follow a thread without pain.

I'd rather have the overhead of a web forum then read e-mails where I have to go through 20 quoted followup's in each single e-mail because the poster was too lazy to cut off the previous junk. This is the norm today and makes

- mailing list archives useless (try searching...)
- sorting/threading in a mail user agent useless

Of course, professional developers should be able to write e-mails and participate civilized in a mailing list. It just doesn't happen these days, don't ask me why...

Half of the people posting here for the first time haven't even read the instructions (check the FAQ first, check parent/child chapter...) for the forum. Sorry for my rant, but with a large userbase you get a lot of new users without much experience and patience.

I also don't like forums because of their general "need-to-use-browser-to-check-for-new-postings" feature....but fortunately that can be changed ;)

Just go and check the
"Always notify me via e-mail of new posts to forums:"
and
"Always notify me of replies:"
in Profile to get nofitications in mail.

Then you get the best of both worlds - IMHO

I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men.