BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users
Sorry for the cross posting but this is a "meta" issue that
I would like feedback on.
As you may know, I've been running the BLDG-SIM for over 20
years and eQUEST-users for 12 years as well as other mailing
lists on onebuilding.org
number of modelers has greatly increased over the years, the
community that participates in these mailing lists has not.
I believe part of that reason is that mailing lists are not
very attractive to younger modelers. I would like to
revitalize the sense of community that I have always seen in
modelers by changing BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users as well as
some of the other onebuilding.org mailing lists to a web and
phone enabled forum called Discourse:
https://www.discourse.org/
One nice thing about this type of forum is that for those
used to a mailing list, they can continue interacting just
like a mailing list but those more comfortable using a
web-based or phone-based forum can participate also.
Example of the web/phone interface can be seen at:
https://meta.discourse.org/
https://forum.golangbridge.org/
https://discourse.julialang.org/
https://discuss.atom.io/
I'm thinking it would be a single Discourse forum but with
categories that correspond to the existing mailing lists and
perhaps some other categories. It would probably live at:
??? forum.onebuilding.org
or something like that.
The reason I'm bringing this up today is that I also help
manage the energyplus_support list hosted on Yahoo and on
December 15, Yahoo is going to shut down all of its mailing
lists and one of the transition options would be the same
Discourse forum.
I know that unmethours.com has become a valuable resource to
the community for questions and answers but I believe that a
forum for discussion and announcements will continue to be
important. Announcements for jobs, training, events, etc..
as well as discussion that does not fit in the question and
answer format continue to occur.
Please let me know what you think and if you think that
BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users as well as the other public
mailing lists on onebuilding.org should transition to a
Discourse forum.
Thanks
Jason
--
Jason Glazer, P.E., BEMP, GARD Analytics, 90.1 ECB chair
Admin for onebuilding.org building performance mailing lists
