On 10/01/2023 08.46, Stefan Ram wrote:
If anyone is interested: In "comp.misc", there's a discussion
about the use of mailing lists in software development.
Subject: An objective criteria for deprecating community platforms
(I did not create this subject!)
(and I don't read comp.misc)
There is an increasingly relevant question though: how do we 'reach' as
many people as possible, without diluting the (community) value of
responses?
At one time, if you wanted to talk/hear certain folk you felt compelled
to join Twitter (see also AOL, MySpace, Facebook, ...). Recently many
more people have realised that a single, centralised, (and
corporately-owned) 'service' has its down-sides.
If there are too many channels for communication, it increases the
difficulty for any one person to 'keep up', eg python-list and python-forum.
On the other hand, by splitting the community, eg python-list and
python-tutor, there are benefits of relevance and focus.
What some don't seem to appreciate is that whilst a conversation such as
"how do I ..." seems to have the objective of (quickly) solving that
(one) person's problem, at that one point in time; it also (potentially)
forms a 'knowledgebase' for people who have the same problem, at some
later time.
For those brought-up with, or in the mode of, 'instant messaging', there
is no concept of future-value. This is evidenced by the many folk who
fail to scan the mailing-list archives before posting a question 'here'
(who may not even realise that archives are kept, and for that very
purpose).
This in-turn, feeds the notion of splitting 'learners' from 'core
developers' (for example). How many times have you seen a question about
how to use Python for the very first time after installing on Windows?
See also the wisdom of enabling comp.lang.python and python-list as
'mirrors', enabling those who prefer one mechanism/client to another,
yet maintaining a single 'community'.
--
Regards,
=dn
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
