The following may not be an answer to tmsinnovation's question, but we were just having a similar conversation on the watersanitationhygiene.org forum: www.watersanitationhygiene.org/forum/php...pic.php?f=557&t=1196
...which dorothee.spuhler started to broaden our member base. Please feel free to comment there if you think we've missed out something

As much as I would love to have a single place where we all meet, I think in reality users will always prefer to go where the action is or where they feel comfortable. So to answer tmsinnovation's question: only time will tell which place is preferred by the users. Heck, we could also end up having everyone move to the watersanitationhygiene.org forum. Are 2 months already enough to have an answer?

I was recently told that the 2nd biggest forum on the internet actually is the comments section on YouTube! Pretty amazing, especially since it's not a usual forum as we know or expect it.

tmsinnovation wrote: 2 months after the last post in this discussion, I am wondering what is the general sentiment about the SuSanA forum versus the old ecosanres mailing list?

Also curious about this. This question has also been raised in the ecosanres group recently by Elisabeth and someone else. What I didn't yet see is any opinion of the owners or managers of the ecosanres group. But they seem to tolerate advertisement for this forum in their group.

dorothee.spuhler wrote: I am now in Stockholm for the SuSanA meeting at SEI as many of us, I will try to bring this question up again.

A feedback on this would also be interesting in this context.

Hi all,

2 months after the last post in this discussion, I am wondering what is the general sentiment about the SuSanA forum versus the old ecosanres mailing list?

I can not comment on the mailing list as I was never a member, but although it may sound bias I am enjoying reading and using the SuSanA forum!

Would be great to hear your opinions and thoughts on the matter!

Regards
Trevor

Hi Florian and all,
I do agree with you: we should avoid competition. It would be good to have only "one thing" and we had a lot of discussions about this already - but no decision yet.
I think it is worth it to wait a little bit and keep on observing both, the forum and the mailing list.
I am now in Stockholm for the SuSanA meeting at SEI as many of us, I will try to bring this question up again.
Best
Dorothee

jkeichholz wrote: get those into using this site instead

I am not so exited by the idea of having 2 fora competing for the same users (after all the user base of the ecosanres-list and the targeted users of this forum are more than less the same). The risk is getting 2 less lively fora in the end, rather than 1 thriving one.
I my opinion (and I am fully aware that this may be just my opinion) the ideal thing would be that the owners of ecosanres-list and susana-forum could avoid competition and agree on merging the 2...

But I stop here now, I am sure you have considered these questions and already made your decision.

Yes, also agree on that. That's why I said we do what Elisabeth does - follow this site. Just see who has started conversations on the mailing list in the last 6 month and get those into using this site instead. Like Elisabeth, for instance.

jkeichholz wrote: Florian - let's just do it like Elisabeth said: "focus on this for now" and then we'll see where the action is.

As I like the way this forum is done, I'll follow it for a while, certainly. In the long run however, I'll go where the action is Technology is one thing, the user base is more important in my opinion.

Florian wrote: I definitely prefer a forum like this to a mailing list.

Agree!

The only advantage, imo, of a mailing list is that e-mail still is lowest denominator and that people measure their work load by the e-mails in their inboxes. So with e-mails, you as a user are forced to read.

What drives me to *this* forum instead of a mailing list is that knowledge as such (discussions and shared experiences) can be aggregated and prepared for those looking for answers (e.g. sticky posts with FAQs).

What drives me to *this* forum instead of e.g. a LinkedIn group on sanitation is that this forum is open and accessible.

So why not watersanitationhygiene.org/? Because I don't see who's behind it - even though the technical approach is very interesting.

Florian - let's just do it like Elisabeth said: "focus on this for now" and then we'll see where the action is. As for merging both the forum and ecosanres: well it's a different user base and even if it is possible to merge both, I am not sure if everyone wants that to happen.

Hi Elisabeth,

thanks for your explanation (and yes: I am in Switzerland now, at Skat St. Gallen).

My thoughts on this:
In my personal opinion, it would be best to have 1 single forum, rather than 2, because a broad user base is crucial for lively discussion. For the platform, I definitely prefer a forum like this to a mailing list. The best in my opinion would be to get the user base of the ecosanres-list on this platform, thus sth. like a merger of the 2.

So for the time being I will follow both... Anyway, great to have these kind of platforms for discussion and thanks for putting your efforts into this.

Cheers, Florian

Dear Florian,
Welcome on this forum, look forward to reading more of you! (you are now in Switzerland, right?)

I think for a while, the ecosanres discussion forum and this one will live side by side. Over time, one of them may die off (or not) - which one, time will tell but I hope not this one! Or perhaps ecosanres will remain on purely ecosan issues where the SuSanA forum is much wider.

Personally, I prefer this forum and will focus on this for now. I find it much more fun to use and easier for others to read (without having to be a member!). But some people may prefer the simplicity of the yahoogroups system where you just have to reply to e-mails instead of making postings. And you receive ALL postings there, whereas here you first have to subscribe to your categories to get e-mail alerts (which is so easy to do, though).

My advice for you if you have a topic that is purely ecosan: Put it on this forum, then send the link to the others on the ecosanres forum and invite them to reply on this forum (or on ecosanres). Try to tease them to try it out here...

If you have a topic that is not strictly ecosan but sustainable sanitation, then I would recommend that you only put it here.

The main thing now is to advertise this forum more and to move away from e-mail discussions towards this more open discussion (which is also found by Google, at least in principle).

What are your thoughts or thoughts of others?

Cheers,
Elisabeth

Very good question! I would like to think than in the continued effort to promote sustainable sanitation and disseminate knowledge that all discussions should take place on the SuSanA forum!

I look forward to reading others point of view on this!

Hi all,

first of all: congratulation for the new forum, looks very nice! Hope it get's lively soon! This is exactly what I have been looking forward to have.

One question to start: I remember that during the survey for the forum, the question of integration of forum and the ecosanres-mailing list was raised. So I would be interested in the outcome of that discussion, and to learn what is your position on the relationship between Susana Forum and ecosanres-list.

Is your vision that both fora will continue to co-exist and serve different purposes and public? Or rather that the forum will replace the mailing-list on the long run?

For now I'd be happy for an instruction on for what should I use the forum and for what rather the ecosanres-mailing list.

In case this has been explained already here or in the ecosanres-list and I missed that, I'd be happy to be pointed to the corresponding entry.

Thanks and best regards,
Florian