On Mon, 17 May 2021 at 11:32, Thomas Wouters <thomas@python.org> wrote:
There's also the social dimension that is simply not present in email -- for good reason. There are many messages I have not sent simply because it's email, so it's more effort and carries much more weight.
Agreed. An example of something I'd consider "semi-social" would be "hey - does anyone know a good library for doing XXX" or "SQLAlchemy baffles me, does anyone use it or know a good tutorial?" These aren't core dev questions - they don't relate to anything I'm doing on CPython, but they are the sort of questions I'd ask a bunch of friends who I know use Python and are experienced/good coders. They also tend to be relatively immediate - it's no big deal if no-one can help, but conversely if I get an answer 3 days from now I'll probably already have worked around the issue - and tend to be conversation triggers (chat about how hard it is to discover new interesting libraries, or about how writing tutorials is an art form that a lot of projects could do with help on).
Discourse is better at this with 'likes' as well as direct linking and cross-referencing. It's still not the same as Discord or similar chat programs.
I think in general modern apps do better on the "social" aspect. Email is still my preferred option for extended discussions, longer or more complex topics, etc, but not so much for things that are more "in the moment".
Paul