I would stick with the web forum so the thread is archived from the start. I have yet to find an IRC client which really works well. You really have to sit and watch the window for incoming messages directed at you so that you send all your waiting instead of coding. And you have to filter out multiple discussions happening at the same time. At least a forum you have isolated threads.
For an interactive real-time group discussion I strongly suggest Skype as it runs on Windows, MacOS X and Linux and is completely free. It also has some useful functions, especially with Unyte (also free) for screen sharing. You can really help someone out when you can see their screen as you talk with them. Unyte works as a Java applet in the web browser so that is also cross-platform.
http://www.skype.com/ http://www.unyte.net/
Skype supports a group chat mode, text and voice, so that we could arrange for a team meeting and have Thomas delegate the work in that way. A good way to do that is have everyone mute their mics and just have Thomas talk. As people want to volunteer they can send an IM in the group chat.
The free version of Unyte does 1 to 1 sharing but the Unyte+ version (paid version) can do 1 to 25 people, so that may be worth the investment for the project. At $30/year I would be happy to pay for Thomas to have access to do that. Perhaps we could have monthly group meetings.
And using the Wink program, Thomas could record his end of the discussion and save out the meeting as a video which others can watch if they could not make the meeting.
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
These 3 tools will really improve the communication and help new contributors get going. I could even produce a recording of the install process. I would actually like to have Thomas walk me through a fresh install in an interview style and publish that on the website as documentation.
Brennan
On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:09:09 -0500, Brett Patterson brett@bpatterson.net wrote:
Michael Bueker wrote:
Chris Richardson wrote:
why not have an irc channels on like freenode or something to allow devs to talk and experienced users help new commers.
There is one, on Freenode, but there's too little activity for it to be useful to people with questions.
~Mik
Isn't that what a forum is for?