I'm reading. There is definitely less traffic with the forum than the mailing list, and it does seem quiet sometimes. Some quick stats (these are very rough numbers):
- About 680 messages were posted to the mailing list from June through August 2008
- About 360 messages have been posted to the forum from June to present.
- About 35-40 people seemed to post an average of 3 times (or more!) per month on the mailing list. For the forum, that number is somewhere around 15 people.
This is a function of mail versus forum information sharing formats. You see the same thing in business. Companies (like mine) are trying like crazy to get people to stop sharing information via email and to use corporate information portals and forums (and it is a challenge in the business world to get people to change).
The problem is that email has some distinct advantages for information sharing:
1. Mail is received by the recipient without asking for it, and it is present and directed to us for easy consumption (users don't have to go to a site to get data). I can also send an email and be pretty darn sure that someone will at least see the subject line.
2. People can exchange information using mail in a very unorganized and casual fashion which can increase the quantity of messages. Portals carry a psychological overhead that the user is, in a sense, publishing something. This takes a bit more work when it is so much easier to send out a "note" or just "reply" to a note."
Meximail (the email list) was great for the 1 year that I was subscribed. But the information hidden in my 12 month archive is so difficult to find. And this is the biggest downside of mailing lists. Yes, the mailing list was more active but I can see how this portal, if there is just a bit more participation, will be a terrific resource for future collectors in the years to come. I can already browse a few topics and see some information that will be useful to me in the future. Or, just type "veracruz" or "reprint" or "1359" in the search bar on the home page and, wow, information is already starting to be there. This will be very cool in a few years!
And to Mike's point, yes, turning on notify for forum areas definitely helps as a reminder that there is something happening on the forum.
Thomas