[Numpy-discussion] Meta: help, devel and stackoverflow

[T J]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 3:23 PM, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 3:06 PM, srean <srean.list at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  What I like about having two lists is that on one hand it does not
> > prevent me or you from participating in both, on the other hand it
> > allows those who dont want to delve too deeply in one aspect or the
> > other, the option of a cleaner inbox, or the option of having separate
> > inboxes. I for instance would like to be in both the lists, perhaps
> > mostly as a lurker, but still would want to have two different folders
> > just for better organization.
>
> I just want to mention that even as a project leader, I benefit from
> this: when I'm swamped, I simply ignore the user list.  Not a nice
> thing to do, perhaps, but given the choice between moving the project
> forward and helping a new user, with often very limited time, I think
> it's the best solution possible.  Of course I do help in the user list
> when I can, but I mostly encourage more experienced users to help new
> ones, so that our small dev team can spend its limited time moving the
> project forward.
>
>
I'm okay with having two lists as it does filtering for me, but this seems
like a sub-optimal solution.

Observation: Some people would like to apply labels to incoming messages.
Reality: Email was not really designed for that.

We can hack it by using two different email addresses, but why not just
keep this list as is and make a concentrated effort to promote the use of
2.0 technologies, like stackoverflow/askbot/etc?  There, people can put as
many tags as desired on questions: matrix, C-API, iteration, etc.
Potentially, these tags would streamline everyone's workflow.  The
stackoverflow setup also makes it easier for users to search for solutions
to common questions, and know that the top answer is still an accurate
answer.  [No one likes finding old invalid solutions.]  The reputation
system and up/down votes also help new users figure out which responses to
trust.

As others have explained, it does seem that there are distinct types of
discussions that take place on this list.

1)  There are community discussiuons/debates.

Examples are the NA discussion, the bug tracker, release schedule, ABI/API
changes, matrix rank tolerance too low, lazy evaluation, etc.   These are
clearly mailing-list topics.   If you look at all the messages for the last
two(!) months, it seems like this type of message has been the dominate
type.

2) There are also standard questions.

Recent examples are "memory allocation at assignment",  "dot() function
question", "not expected output of fill_diagonal", "silly isscalar
question".  These messages seem much more suited to the stackoverflow
environment.  In fact, I'd be happy if we redirected such questions to
stackoverflow.  This has the added benefit that responses to such questions
will stay on topic.  Note that if a stackoverflow question seeds a
discussion, then someone can start a new thread on the mailing list which
cite the stackoverflow question.

tl;dr

Keep this list the same, and push "user" questions to stackoverflow instead
of pushing them to a user list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/attachments/20120628/8408d0fd/attachment.html>