Try out the new discussion group, now in beta!

A few brief comments:

• Yes, there are bugs! Many bugs! Please report them using the link provided.
• It looks kind of plain right now, I know. And I haven’t implemented a search feature yet, which is planned.
• It works a lot like the old discussion group.
• There’s a new archive section (“Older Topics”).
• You can provide a URL with your name when you post. I’m hoping that people who have their own web sites will do so, and that this will make posters a little less anonymous. (Note that these URLs will not be followed by search engines like Google, so they cannot be abused to “steal” PageRank.)

Most of the changes are really on the back end, in the adminitrator’s interface and in the abuse- and spam-prevention features. I’m hoping that if all works well, you’ll see a lot less spam. And it’s now much easier for me to make a new discussion group, something which used to take an hour of work, so I may set up several new groups in the future (if you have a good idea for a topic please post it.)