Re: IBM Gives RPG Devotees Their Own Café -- WEB400

<rant>
And besides...why does it always have to be a freaking cafe? Is that
what technical people are supposed to do...hang out in cafes?
Personally, I don't sit in a cafe with a laptop and a freaking beret
or whatever.
</rant>

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Another good point. But why is the web _nothing_ like that? Can't we as
web application developers do something about that? Don't we control the
design of our applications?

Nathan, I realize that you are trying to look at this from different
angles and play a little bit of devils advocate, but now you are changing
the playing field. The comments being made are based on what is available
*today* and not what we *could* create someday down the road.

Portal pages are getting closer and closer to giving me a one-stop-shop
for all my information (i.e. iGoogle home page), but I would have to agree
with Walden that it just isn't there yet. The only thing relating to
forums and email threads that is better in the browser than on a "thicker
client" is GMails approach to combining a thread into a single inbox
entry. Outside of that the browser apps are still playing catchup IMO and
have quite a long way to go.

With all of that said do you still believe that forums are as solid as a
"catch all communications" thick client on the desktop? I am in full
agreement that forums suck - I barely participate in them except for when
I need something real bad.

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com

Nathan Andelin wrote:

From: Walden
Are you kidding me?

No, I'm not kidding - just coming at this from a different angle.

I'm in Outlook all day long. I've got a bunch of folders, I can
see a view of Midrange, SQLServer, .Net, IRB, 21CFR11, etc.
All from one spot.

Ah, Yes. Like David said, email [and a mail client] is the lowest common denominator. You subscribe to a number of different lists from a number of different sources, but they're all available from one client.

Oh, and it's the same spot I get "real" work done w/clients
and vendors. The web is _nothing_ like that.

Another good point. But why is the web _nothing_ like that? Can't we as web application developers do something about that? Don't we control the design of our applications?

Well, in the case of EGL and RPG Cafes, it appears that IBM didn't take much thought except to look at few content management systems, and pick one for their content.

I (the human being) have to open numerous sites,
click through numerous pages and then I get a bunch of
fluff and pretty colors ...

I don't like that either. And it kind-of gets back to the root of the problem for publisher sites like "Cafe". The site exists primarily as a marketing vehicle for publishers and advertisers. The forums are a way to attract readers. IBM is the sponsoring advertiser in this case.

I can (obviously) only speak for myself. But I will not partake
in a web-based forum, take _way_ too much time.

Same here, essentially. But bringing this back to my intended focus [web application development], what does it take to pry Outlook and Thunderbird out of user's hands, and get them to select a Web application instead. As evidenced in this thread, it will take more than "brochure-ware".

Nathan.

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