On Fri, Apr 21, 2023 at 12:24 AM Benson Muite <benson_mu...@emailplus.org> wrote: > > On 4/21/23 04:24, Chris Adams wrote: > > Once upon a time, Matthew Miller <mat...@fedoraproject.org> said: > >> I am proposing that over the course of 2023, starting with the Changes > >> process, we move Fedora development conversations from this mailing list to > >> the Discourse-based Fedora Discussion. > > > > I feel this is a case of trading one group of people (email list users) > > for a different group of people (web forum users). I have seen this > > done multiple times over the years, tried to follow a few times, and > > always dropped off fairly rapidly. I'm solidly in the "email list > > users" group. > Discourse is very nice. It is open source, uses a reasonable license > [0] (though [1] would be better), and is great for casual interactions > that maybe spread out over time. Would highly recommend it for moderate > size community discussion. > > However, it doesn't seem like we can hack on it to better suite > community needs, for example to have the same functionality as mailing > lists[2]. It is not standards driven and is primarily developed by one > company - something that follows Apache way[3] or has a community > governance process would be better in the long term for a large project > with many contributors who have technical expertise. > > Email clients offer significant customizability that a one size fits all > web interface cannot provide. Mailing list mode for Discourse is > helpful, but not at the same level as email lists, where once one has > gained sufficient knowledge, interaction can be done from the comfort of > the client of your choice. As such, simply adopting it because it can be > deployed may leave out many contributors, in particular those who drive > development forward. Mailing lists are not perfect, but it is not clear > Discourse is a good replacement for the devel list.
As Matthew stated, Ben has measured it and fewer people are participating on the mailing list over time. We are already leaving out many contributors. Those conversations are largely moving to issue trackers, which are also not perfect but are clearly more appealing than email for many people. Discourse has the potential to be a more attractive alternative than both email and issue trackers. To me this seems like a solid strategy for reversing the trend and getting more people participating in development discussions. > > 0) https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/LICENSE.txt > 1) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html > 2) > https://discourse.cmake.org/t/cmake-discourse-mailing-list-mode-incorrectly-personally-addresses-all-email/738 > 3) https://apache.org/theapacheway/ > _______________________________________________ > devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org > To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org > Fedora Code of Conduct: > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > List Archives: > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org > Do not reply to spam, report it: > https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue -- Carl George _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
