Wesley,
You bring up a great point, the ability to know there's a member with a
question or problem through email.
Many discussion boards, and more particularly, the one at the communities
site, allow you to subscribe to an individual discussion thread or group.
When subscribed at the group level, anytime there's a question posted to
that group, you will be notified that there's activity on the discussion
forum. That way, you don't have to constantly look at the discussion forum
to know there's something being discussed. In its current incarnation, the
email contains a link that allows you to see the thread. Gary has set up
various groups broken down by topical information so, for example, if you're
a systems DBA and don't care about application development posts, you don't
have to subscribe to the application development group.
Several user groups, including the IUA, have asked the community technical
developers to investigate the ability to see the message and post back via
email. This is currently under investigation. I am unaware at this time if
this desired ability will still require a sign on as security is important
and is being taken into consideration.
Linda J. Casey, PMP, CSM, MSEd