A forum is not as effective as mailing lists for people like me.
Usually you will only access a forum for asking questions and not to
reply to them. This also makes it less likely that your question
will be answered.
In a mailing list you'll see all messages that comes through them.
Eventually you’ll see a question that you’re able to reply even
though your main interest in the list is making questions instead of
answering them.
I have searched for "engine" in the Rails-talk list and I found that
that list is probably not very effective for such subject:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/PqCTofRUSrM/ZXmbOmB_368J
(
app-prefix for tasks defined in an engine?! - no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/XvrZOOcsmD8/6sAQjLWB1QcJ
(self replied)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/OkE9zq5APVQ/6IgaWmZIirUJ
(same)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/iMDlv-U5Kyc/r1uvnconwlIJ
(no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/b_gStTqQXvA/vQNSqsF2muIJ
(no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/1IofgiCKbUQ/69eaQeOGvG8J
(no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/5T0g8ADL_4w/4BgZItDw260J
(no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/K6cgyimLb5Y/2YlNZPsPFM4J
(no answers)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/JpLBcLhu2PA/p4-xpg6iC2cJ
(no answers)
This is pretty typical in Rails-talk and I'd say this would
represent about 80% of the top results for “engine” search in that
group.
And there is a lot of regular questions like database modeling,
validations, etc there too.
I still think that a focused mailing list on Engines or more
advanced stuff could be interesting for dealing with experienced
Rails developers.
You will also find by looking at that group that the people that are
most likely to be the ones that know best the answers are not
subscribed to rails-talk but to rails-core only.
Lots of them don't even seem to be subscribed to rails-core even and
I’d suspect the core members have a separate mailing list or other
means of communicating between themselves.
That is why I think a focused general questions list about advanced
subjects could be interesting.
I hope you understand what I mean.
Cheers,
Rodrigo.