Poll: best communication for developers?

What's the most effective means of long-range communication for developers?

a) email = 0
b) forum/web-based = 4
c) instant messaging = 2
d) phone/audio = 0
e) video conferencing = 0
f) email and phone = 1
g) forum and IM = 1
h) email and forum = 3
i) email, forum and IM = 1
j) email, forum, IM and phone = 1
k) all = 3
l) none/bottle = 2
total = 18

I'm just wondering what developers here use most and why.

I voted for forum because it's simple and reliable.

Edit: added some more options.

Forum then email once ideas are established.

I work for a company with development studios in multiple countries. We use instant messaging heavily, email for lists of stuff to do, and ocassional meetings. On top of that we also have a web driven central task list type thingy, you dont have that as an option above - basically it's like forum with lots of custom information displayed on the first post, and a summary report that checks status etc.

You never get as much done as you can face to face though, i'd never recommend working in a team where you cannot meet everyone.

b) Forum

Forum or email

- email for personal job descriptions, deadlines, complaints etc.
- forum for big and detailed discussions
- instant msg for quick 'n simple questions and the occasional motivational talk
- phone for instant reminding of a deadline and the occasional immediate raised voice when the team has fallen asleep.
- video for pimping towards customers and other useless stuff

overall: forum

Moving closer together. Unless you know each other really well, most "long-range" communication for coordinating a project will fail.

something like yahoo or IRC can be good so long as everyone is motivated. Otherwise it can just become a chatfest.

Hardest part for us in keeping a team together when one is most often waiting for something from the other two team members, and schedule overlap might only allow for a couple of hours of communication if that.

We have a forum too, but that mostly gets used to leave todo's and team requests that can easily be forgotten or overlooked otherwise.

Rarely use email, don't even have an email for our low level C++ coder heh.

a) is okay, but sometimes it takes too long to get anywhere, with the delays in communication. b) is much like a) tbh.
c) is better, as conversation is more flowing.
For d) do you include "audio" conferencing (eg. via skype)?

I've found audio/video conference a preference with people you are on the same wave-length with. It is *much* faster to solve issues talking to someone.
It helps if they speak the same language as you of course, otherwise you'll spend most of the conversation wondering what the hell they are trying to say.

It also depends *who* you have to work with. In my experience, people from some countries have a different mind-set, which just doesn't work with mine. In the UK, we are taught to think for ourselves and have a bit of initiative. So, when you come up against an issue, you "work it out", and get on with it. Which isn't how, say, India works. Instead you get... "We did such-and-such, but it didn't work properly"... um, yeah, so seeing the exception, you'll know what went wrong, right, and therefore what you should do differently?... Anyhoo... enough of my issues with out-sourcing :-p

k) I suppose... each has their uses at different times.

And the Duck is right, of course. You generally can't coordinate a large project "off-shore" if you don't know who you are working with. Usually, the stuff you get back is crap... partly because things weren't communicated in a high-enough level of detail. And even then, someone can always get the wrong end of the stick, even if in your conversations they appear to understand everything required of them... which you won't realise until the code lands on your desk, you take one look at it and think "WTF!?" :-p

I like forums best. But of course, i've never completed a project with anyone, so take that how you will.

That's why I'm moving to Vancouver, to be in the same studio as others. I've tried Long Range stuff for 4 years now and it's OK but there's hell of a lot of time wasted typing...

Email and phone, don't see it listed as a choice but it is the best.

I just cover that sort of thing under forum.


Yes, phone is just audio, so audio skype is the same thing.


I replaced forum and phone with that, interesting choice.

Something like Trac would be nice. It's a combined wiki, bug/issue tracker and subversion viewer.

Personally I never use IM when coding, it's just distracting.

message in a bottle

I'd say IM is the most effective in first place, since you have it always open. Forums and mail need you to dedicatedly open those windows. Even phone is worse than IM, because you might be in a shower or shitting, and miss the call.

I freelance for a company that uses email,IM and somtime online project managment where task lists are submmited and marked as complete. although this happens when deadline approch :)

I would prefer IM over every other communication method as i find it much quicker should i need to confirm anything im unsure about.

At work we use Skype, our cellphones and basecamp (http://clientsection.com/)

I think email and forums. Email works great between 2 people and forums are a bit better for larger teams up to maybe 5 people to converse with each other directly. Once you go larger than that you need to break up into groups.

If you use IM for 2 people you usually end up talking about non-sense although sometimes it's useful for "bonding" purposes. I've found oral communication in person or over the phone to be one of the worst ways to communicate and in general just go around in circles. Without the proper amount of time to formulate clear thoughts a conversation about something as deep as game development can be counter-productive unless you're just having some fun.

Email and forums are great because it gets rid of the quick back and forth aspects of a conversation which often lead to tangents caused by people saying something they didn't think through enough. That's my view as far as productivity goes.

Yahoo lets you IM in a group, which is handy in a team of 3. Sometimes the best way to avoid conversations is to just ignore the screen when your busy. I'm the only guy in our team with one monitor and it's a pain having to switch apps if your in the middle of using BLIDE, 3dsmax or photoshop just to see that someone said nothing usefull :).

One good reason to get 2 monitors, with trillian it steals the focus of my app when someone posts which is a pain.