"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
I hate hate hate clunky, difficult to navigate, web forums.

Yes! What Bruce said.

Also going to any web forum effectively ties the group's fate to (at minimum)
the whims of whomever hosts the forum. There is nothing to stop it from
disappearing overnight without so much as a puff of smoke! The diversified
nature of the Usenet leaves no one person or hosting service in charge. It is
very difficult, perhaps impossible, for a group to suddenly disappear from
Usenet without a trace because the groups exist on multiple servers.

An even worse situation is if the group were to disperse to a random group of
forums. In the forum world there is such a thing as "Critical Mass". The
soaring world is of very finite size, so it is important that we all be in one
place to effectively exchange ideas and information.

Vaughn