[UK-TUG] UK TeX User Forum is available to former members

[Dr Nicola L C Talbot]

Here's a list of all the options that I can think of:

1 . New mailing list.

The advantage for users is that since almost everyone has an email 
account, there's no new interface to get used to.

The disadvantage is that the user's email address is exposed when they 
post to the list, which may not be to everyone's liking.

 From the admin side, someone would need to volunteer to set up the 
mailing list and find an appropriate server.

Personally, I don't particularly like mailing lists as they can clutter 
up an inbox, and digest messages are difficult to reply to.

2. Usenet.

There are already newsgroups available, such as comp.text.tex, but they 
work best with a newsreader and a news server. I had to change news 
servers when my broadband provider decided to axe their news server. It 
seems that news servers are dying out. Google groups is a possibility, 
but not everyone wants to trust their personal data to Google.

As with mailing lists, the user's email address is exposed when they 
post to the list (which allows people to reply directly to the sender 
rather than to the list).

3. Social Media

As has already been mentioned, not everyone likes or trusts social 
media. I have a Facebook account, but I don't use it very often. I have 
no interest in WhatsApp, Instagram etc. (Signal and iMessage are the 
only messaging apps I use.)

4. RSS Feed

This is a read-only option that could be used to post announcements. It 
only requires a server to host the RSS file. Users can subscribe to the 
feed using an aggregator. This is the best option in terms of data 
protection, but can't be used for conversations.

5. IRC or similar

There are already some TeX-related groups on the Matrix (matrix.org). 
TUG apparently has an official chat on the Matrix network 
(https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/8858). The Island of TeX also has 
a room. The simplest way of accessing it is through https://app.element.io/

This is my preferred option. I've been able to access the Island of TeX 
room both through the element website and through Thunderbird (which I 
also use for email, newsgroups and RSS feeds).

Best regards
Nicola Talbot