Hello Rett,

Thanks for taking a look at the forum. I am fully willing to divide the
forum into subforums, but honestly, the only person really posting there
is me. :-D
Dmytro does post sometimes, but a bit irregularly. Ven. Yuttadhammo is
working on some javascript translation tool that links to the PED (and
is looking really great so far) and so isn't doing translation at the
moment. The only newbie that I managed to pull over into the section
posted only twice and then stopped. I have seen two other people from
here post a couple of times, but that is the extent of things.
Do you think that setting up these divisions will actually help to pull
over some beginners, and "scholars and pandits?" If not, then I might
wait a little while longer until it isn't simply me posting. If you
think that it will actually draw in some people, then I suppose I should
do it immediately.
So your thoughts are:

Beginners section
Translation discussion
Grammar and Term discussion

This last one could be intended more for "experts."

What do you think? I really am open to suggestions. I would love to be
able to have people active over there as well. My idea is that both
forums (Yahoo and E-Sangha) can help to support each other in a number
of different ways. This is why I post here as well as over there. If I
hear useful things here then I post about them over there, etc. With
something as important as the Pali Canon, I think it is good to use all
the resources at our disposal to progress in our knowledge of Pali.

Anyway, I look forward to your further comments.

Metta,

Alan

E-Sangha Pali Forum
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?showforum=50



rett wrote:

>Alan,
>
>I took a look at the forum and it seems like a very good resource. Thanks for your work there! The ability to thread discussion topics is very helpful for clarity and ease of reference.
>
>Are you planning to divide the Pali section into a number of subsections (beyond the split you already have between 'important' topics and general topics?)
>
>In general I don't believe in setting up a bunch of separate subforums until a need arises, since I've seen some very ambitious php forums that open up on day one with fifty subforums and everyone just posts in the 'coffee lounge' while the rest of the fora get a visitor once every other week.
>
>But for Pali it might be helpful to put in some divisions, for instance a beginner's section where no question is too simple, a section for answering questions about particular words or short phrases, a section for getting feedback on lengthier translations, and a section for more advanced topics/questions. The latter in particular could be valuable to encourage scholars and pandits to come to the group. Some might not have the time or inclination to wade through the beginner's threads, but once we get them hooked we might be able to lure them into helping beginners along more and more :-)
>
>This are just a few off-hand suggestions, and perhaps other categories would work better, but I think it might be a good idea. It could also help for keeping the archived material organized, and help for people doing searches in the database.
>
>best regards,
>
>/Rett
>
>
>