[OT] Mailing lists similar to PIClist ?

[Jason White]

Over the past seven years I have learned a great deal simply by reading
PIClist. Much thanks to Russel, Olin, and the many others who have
participated over the years.

Are there other mailing-lists, sites, or communities like PIClist?

Specifically, I'm looking for Electronics, Mechanical and Machining related
communities.

Thanks,
-Jason White

[RussellMc]

Post by Jason White
Over the past seven years I have learned a great deal simply by reading
PIClist. Much thanks to Russel, Olin, and the many others who have
participated over the years.
Are there other mailing-lists, sites, or communities like PIClist?

Join Stack Exchange.
Many topic "areas".
Different way of doing things to PICList but still useful.
Less "friendly"
Can be hard on newcomers (despite rules which say it should not be)
Not always "rational"
But worth belonging to

Olin and I and other current and ex PICListers are there.
Olin is top of "rep" table in EE.

SE https://stackexchange.com/

SE me
https://stackexchange.com/users/509441/russell-mcmahon?tab=accounts

SE Olin
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/4512/olin-lathrop



Russell

[Jim Ruxton]

As well as Russel's suggestion which is great I would recommend EEVBlog
. There is a very active forum there broken down by topics
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/ definitely some noise but still useful .

Jim

Post by RussellMc

Post by Jason White
Over the past seven years I have learned a great deal simply by reading
PIClist. Much thanks to Russel, Olin, and the many others who have
participated over the years.
Are there other mailing-lists, sites, or communities like PIClist?

Join Stack Exchange.
Many topic "areas".
Different way of doing things to PICList but still useful.
Less "friendly"
Can be hard on newcomers (despite rules which say it should not be)
Not always "rational"
But worth belonging to
Olin and I and other current and ex PICListers are there.
Olin is top of "rep" table in EE.
SE https://stackexchange.com/
SE me
https://stackexchange.com/users/509441/russell-mcmahon?tab=accounts
SE Olin
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/4512/olin-lathrop
Russell

[George Smith]

Post by RussellMc
Join Stack Exchange.

I went to the linked site and clicked "Learn More" and got a load of
guff about reputation, voting and badges and (of course) unicorns...
Not /really/ like the PIClist?

George Smith (grumpy old ***)

[Wouter van Ooijen]

Post by George Smith

Post by RussellMc
Join Stack Exchange.

I went to the linked site and clicked "Learn More" and got a load of
guff about reputation, voting and badges and (of course) unicorns...
Not /really/ like the PIClist?
George Smith (grumpy old ***)

No, its format is much different from a mailing list. It is much less
suited to a random, wandering discussion or a vauge, probing or
opinion-seeking question. I have yet to find a forum that handles those
types of questions as well as the piclist. But it is much more
google-friendly: when you have a specific programming question and
google it, you are very likely to find a (probably correct) answer ons
some SE site. And is also very fast: some of my C++ questions got
answered within minutes, with very useable answers.

These days I don't do any PIC work, only C++ (mostly on ARMs, with some
sidesteps to AVR and MSP430 to try 8 and 16 bits chips). I have yet to
find a good forum
for C++/micro-controller discussions :(

[Michael Johnston]

Have you check out the forum on Microchips website. its kind of dead but
seems to be still kicking. Michael

Post by Wouter van Ooijen

Post by George Smith

Post by RussellMc
Join Stack Exchange.

I went to the linked site and clicked "Learn More" and got a load of
guff about reputation, voting and badges and (of course) unicorns...
Not /really/ like the PIClist?
George Smith (grumpy old ***)

No, its format is much different from a mailing list. It is much less
suited to a random, wandering discussion or a vauge, probing or
opinion-seeking question. I have yet to find a forum that handles those
types of questions as well as the piclist. But it is much more
google-friendly: when you have a specific programming question and
google it, you are very likely to find a (probably correct) answer ons
some SE site. And is also very fast: some of my C++ questions got
answered within minutes, with very useable answers.
These days I don't do any PIC work, only C++ (mostly on ARMs, with some
sidesteps to AVR and MSP430 to try 8 and 16 bits chips). I have yet to
find a good forum
for C++/micro-controller discussions :(
--
Wouter "Objects? No Thanks!" van Ooijen
--
http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

[rossano gobbi]

Yes, if you're not used to that kind of systems - that are put in place to keep online communities from degenerating but usually degenerate themselves into various forms of totalitarianisms :-) - it won't be the greatest experience. If you can go past all this though, you may find an enjoyable community behind it.
And what others said: if you google any software question of any kind you will most of the times find a useful answer, or at least a good suggestion, on a SE page.

But speaking strictly of places with a Piclist "feeling", nothing comes to mind...

Rossano

Post by George Smith

Post by RussellMc
Join Stack Exchange.

I went to the linked site and clicked "Learn More" and got a load of
guff about reputation, voting and badges and (of course) unicorns...
Not /really/ like the PIClist?
George Smith (grumpy old ***)

[RussellMc]

Post by George Smith

Post by RussellMc
Join Stack Exchange.

I went to the linked site and clicked "Learn More" and got a load of
guff about reputation, voting and badges and (of course) unicorns...
Not /really/ like the PIClist?
George Smith (grumpy old ***)

​I'm legally-grumpy (and have official secret records to prove it :-) :-( )
and ​older than over 90% of the world's population.
As I took pains to say when I recommended SE - PICList and Se ARE
DIFFERENT. They have different strengths and weaknesses.
As I said, SE is less friendly and allows people to be meaner than they
"should" be.
I am a thorn in the SE moderators' paw on occasion through going in to bat
for various newcomers and those having problems getting to grips with the
etiquette of the system.

BUT

SE is immensely useful, valuable and powerful.
It has an immense knowledge base with a relatively good signal to noise
ratio (which is the aim of the system) and while the rules can be somewhat
limiting, a suitably competent information supplier can optimise them to
some extent if the result is in fact more liable to meet the site's aims
due to the optimisation. [Ask me how I know :-). DT may not agree).

IGNORE the rep aspects - it matters little. I'm near the top of their EE
rep list - it got me a few T shirts and some related stickers - which I was
actually quite chuffed to get BUT apart from that has minimal real world
relevance - apart from knowing that you have helped large numbers of people.

Olin is top of the EE rep chart and still 'going for it'. We clash
occasionally over treatment of newcomers but not much of late. As ever, he
is very good and very helpful to the suitably reverent.

Voting - ignore it until it seems relevant.
Badges - same.
Christmas badges allow your "avatar" to don various silly hats - can be
"fun".
BUT the technical content is very very useful, accessible, disparate, ... .

JOIN SE. Ignore the fluffy bits.
It's good.

Come home to PICList at days end for a chat and proper interactive question
mode and more friendly people overall and ... .
[I get a steady trickle of offlist "thankyou's" from people on SE and have
made a few longer term friends.)


FWIW - I 'belong' to about 50 SE groups, but am active in about 3 (EE,
Photography, Travel) , vaguely active in another 5, and dabble in others
when a question on the sidebar menu is attractive enough.


Russell

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[Art]

Hi Jason,

I concur with others who suggested Stack Exchange. I have not joined
because they have arrangements with google, and I do not like being
tracked by google. But the content on the website is outstanding +++

There are other forums that are quite good, an internet search will find
them.

GL.

Art

Post by Jason White
Over the past seven years I have learned a great deal simply by reading
PIClist. Much thanks to Russel, Olin, and the many others who have
participated over the years.
Are there other mailing-lists, sites, or communities like PIClist?
Specifically, I'm looking for Electronics, Mechanical and Machining related
communities.
Thanks,
-Jason White

[James Cameron]

People differ in preferences; I like to be able to search my
mail for anything I've seen, so I like mail. I've met people who
don't like mail at all, or it costs them too much time to read, or has
the wrong font size and they don't know how to change it.

Forums attract web based activity, but mailing lists concentrate on
mail.

Best mix of both I've seen is the Discourse forum software, co-written
by a co-founder of Stack Exchange; but I've not seen an instance for
electronics apart from small ones.

Forums tend to have less human moderation functions, and Stack
Exchange is an example of outsourcing the moderation to the members.

So what I'm really appreciating is our PIClist human moderators.

[RussellMc]

​

Post by Art
Hi Jason,
I concur with others who suggested Stack Exchange. I have not joined
because they have arrangements with google, and I do not like being
tracked by google. But the content on the website is outstanding +++
There are other forums that are quite good, an internet search will find
them.

On SE you can be as anonymous as you wish to be.
Your IP address is known - unless you "spoof" it or obscure it in any of
the usual ways - if you are already doing that it's not an issue and if you
are not then SE is just one more hole in your system. Google allows you to
anonymise your searching. They know you are you but do not (they say) allow
the information to be passed out of their system. If you do not trust this
assertion then you should already be dealing with it in some way.

ALL PIClist material is "scraped" by several services soon after posting
and available on web via any search engine.

Russell