Enabling topics with only one topic: can't exclude topic?
Context:
The bzr developers are considering splitting their Mailman list into a -dev and a -user list, but they don't like that because they feel it would split their community in an undesirable way. So the proposal is to create a [codereview] topic which gets workflow-related posts (nitty-gritty coding style comments as well as automatically generated messages from a patch queue manager). Most users aren't going to be interested in these, but will be interested in bug reports and their resolutions, and in design discussions, which will not get an explicit topic.
So many users would like to select *only* messages *without* explicit topic. The quoted post claims that appears to be impossible. Seems like a bug to me, either in the topic feature (if it *is* impossible) or in the page template documenting usage.
John Arbash Meinel writes:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Martin Pool wrote: | I've set up a Mailman topic "codereview", and people can use this to | opt out of getting review related mail. (Or, if you want, to get only | code reviews, but that would look a bit strange.) | | Messages will be classified into this topic if they have either | [merge] or [codereview] in the Subject, or in a Keywords header, or in | a pseudoheader in the top 5 lines of the message body. | | I have to say that the interface through which users can configure | this is not so obvious and people who want it may not find it. But, | it's there and we can see how it goes. | | If anyone wants to try it out: go to | <https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/options/bazaar>, enter your address, | and scroll to the bottom of the resulting page. If it doesn't work as | intended please let me know. |
So, I was reading through the description, and I found this:
| If you do not select any topics of interest, you will get all the messages | sent to the mailing list.
And the description below that is: | Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter? | | This option only takes effect if you've subscribed to at least one topic above.
So there is a problem. There is no way to say that don't want codereview messages.
You can get *only* codereview by checking the box, and then saying you don't want unmatched messages.
You can get all messages by either not checking codereview, or by checking it and saying you *do* want unmatched messages.
It seems that the only way to get what non-reviewers want, is to have multiple topics, perhaps one as a dummy "ijustwanttodisablecodereview" topic.
Further, I *do* like the idea of sending merge requests directly to BB, and having it forward the messages to the list. I think it could be an optional feature for people who know the BB address. I suppose that I'm a bit concerned with BB's stability if we do implement this. Because if BB goes down, then all of our submissions get circular filed (trashed until bounce, or whatever).
John =:-> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Cygwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iEYEARECAAYFAkiZrLAACgkQJdeBCYSNAAPEcgCeIpAOODfcymjQ4y9x3MAO4tyT Y4gAoJe/WS0vmrSsZ8GGz40OyIVGegrf =OjCX -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On Aug 6, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
The bzr developers are considering splitting their Mailman list into a -dev and a -user list, but they don't like that because they feel it would split their community in an undesirable way. So the proposal is to create a [codereview] topic which gets workflow-related posts (nitty-gritty coding style comments as well as automatically generated messages from a patch queue manager). Most users aren't going to be interested in these, but will be interested in bug reports and their resolutions, and in design discussions, which will not get an explicit topic.
So many users would like to select *only* messages *without* explicit topic. The quoted post claims that appears to be impossible. Seems like a bug to me, either in the topic feature (if it *is* impossible) or in the page template documenting usage.
JAM pinged me in private irc and he's going to try to create a dummy
topic which users can subscribe to to essentially filter out the
codereview tags. It's a bit tricky because you have to create a
negative regexp that's narrower than .* for the dummy topic.
I think underneath the u/i it might not be difficult to support a
"don't subscribe to this topic" setting. That's something for 2.2
though, as I think it's a new feature.
- -Barry
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Darwin)
iEYEARECAAYFAkiZ3xQACgkQ2YZpQepbvXGuFgCeKnOK498lt+oOZDQx54orXrM+ 6XEAn0cyLCa8ROs8rcEnMZ0IJoKimejU =QQwV -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Barry Warsaw wrote:
On Aug 6, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
The bzr developers are considering splitting their Mailman list into a -dev and a -user list, but they don't like that because they feel it would split their community in an undesirable way. So the proposal is to create a [codereview] topic which gets workflow-related posts (nitty-gritty coding style comments as well as automatically generated messages from a patch queue manager). Most users aren't going to be interested in these, but will be interested in bug reports and their resolutions, and in design discussions, which will not get an explicit topic.
So many users would like to select *only* messages *without* explicit topic. The quoted post claims that appears to be impossible. Seems like a bug to me, either in the topic feature (if it *is* impossible) or in the page template documenting usage.
JAM pinged me in private irc and he's going to try to create a dummy
topic which users can subscribe to to essentially filter out the
codereview tags. It's a bit tricky because you have to create a
negative regexp that's narrower than .* for the dummy topic.I think underneath the u/i it might not be difficult to support a
"don't subscribe to this topic" setting. That's something for 2.2
though, as I think it's a new feature.
I'm thinking of handling it differently. Namely, just changing "Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter?" so that it works even if you are not subscribed to any topic and sends you everything that doesn't match, but not anything that does match. It seems that that would handle the "everything but the one defined topic" case as well as the more general "I don't want any of the defined topics, but I want everything else" case.
Thoughts?
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Mark Sapiro wrote:
I'm thinking of handling it differently. Namely, just changing "Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter?" so that it works even if you are not subscribed to any topic and sends you everything that doesn't match, but not anything that does match. It seems that that would handle the "everything but the one defined topic" case as well as the more general "I don't want any of the defined topics, but I want everything else" case.
Note there would either have to be a special case where no subscribed topics and "Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter? = No" means receive all messages, or change it to a 3-way option - "only subscribed topics", "subscribed topics + no topic" or "all messages" - and migrate the setting appropriately.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On Aug 24, 2008, at 12:02 AM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
Mark Sapiro wrote:
I'm thinking of handling it differently. Namely, just changing "Do
you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter?" so that it works even if you are not subscribed to any topic and sends you everything that doesn't match, but not anything that does match. It seems that that would handle the "everything but the one defined topic" case as well as the more general "I don't want any of the defined topics, but I want everything else" case.Note there would either have to be a special case where no subscribed topics and "Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter? = No" means receive all messages, or change it to a 3-way option - "only subscribed topics", "subscribed topics + no topic" or "all messages" - and migrate the setting appropriately.
This one makes the most sense to me. I think it will be easiest to
explain to users as well.
Thanks,
- -Barry
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Darwin)
iEYEARECAAYFAkizveIACgkQ2YZpQepbvXHJFgCdEy6wuZGsigNVB0dql/WHTXs/ SHwAoJfyevG359zsrEdOsOhH6rjnBScw =YKaX -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Barry Warsaw wrote:
On Aug 24, 2008, at 12:02 AM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
Note there would either have to be a special case where no subscribed topics and "Do you want to receive messages that do not match any topic filter? = No" means receive all messages, or change it to a 3-way option - "only subscribed topics", "subscribed topics + no topic" or "all messages" - and migrate the setting appropriately.
This one makes the most sense to me. I think it will be easiest to explain to users as well.
I have made a first cut at implementing this. It still uses the ReceiveNonmatchingTopics user option behind the scenes, but it presents the 3-way option to the user. This is in the branch at lp:~msapiro/mailman/topics. The specific changes are at
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~msapiro/mailman/topics/revision/1007
Comments are welcome.
Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFIxDV2VVuXXpU7hpMRAsvkAJ421H2fAJpvG+rcF/yINKS+rQQZCgCcC0LA v2yEOreeF5jsnaayPDciaMI= =UEKk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (3)
-
Barry Warsaw -
Mark Sapiro -
Stephen J. Turnbull