dgermann
I see your point...However I guess I have a different opinion. This is where I would like to hear other people's opinion as well, because I agree basically with you (trying to make the forum more popular, easier to use, etc) and how to achieve that is probably an important discussion, where I'm open to other points of view.
I agree that there are some skills to learn to use a forum (many skills actually; because most people here are experienced users, it's easy to overlook the problems of non-skilled users). However I believe email posting may be more confussing than helpful :
The new users (at least the one that I know) are more skilled on the web and know very little about their mail programs. They also seem to be willing to learn (and therefore more succesful at) how to use a website. I guess there is some logic behind this, most people will use that skills all over the web, not only at your site. The truth is, if they want to use the forum they will have to learn how. While we can, and should, do as much as possible to make that as easy as possible, they wont have a pleasnt experience with it unless they learn these skills.
My other concern is that these people posting by mail will not be able to really follow the discussions, and therefore wont be able to really interact with the community (but I may be missing how this thing would work). I also would like to encourage people to come to the forum (learning the skills) and use the other community building features (PM for example or something entirely differnent at my site). That's what I always thought <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> but I am open to other arguments proving em wrong...
