[pytest-dev] [RFC] experimenting with using matrix as chat/community platform for potentially superseding irc

[Daniel Watkins]

Hi Ronny (et al),

I wouldn't consider myself an active member of the community, but I do
engage in some conversations and occasional support on IRC, and most days
I'll read all the conversation in the channel. As a pytest power user, I
like to keep abreast of what's happening in pytest development. I don't
remember when I joined, but I've remained in there because I'm already
connected to Freenode for other channels; the cost to me of another IRC
channel is very low.

As a concrete data point: I am not invested enough that I would set up a
Matrix client in order to remain in the pytest chat community. Another
concrete data point: I have joined gitter in the past to get support for a
project, but I didn't remain there very long afterwards, because I didn't
want a whole tab that was only for chatting about a single project that I'm
not very involved in.

To generalise from my situation (i.e. to wildly guess ^_^), I wouldn't be
surprised if you retain the most active members of the community, but lose
a lot of the "I use pytest and would like to know what's going on" sort of
people, who don't need Yet Another Chat Client in their life. You will also
(I suspect) see greater attrition of people who do join but don't get
hooked. If my conjecture is correct, then these are tradeoffs you'll need
to consider.

I hope this input is helpful, and, finally: thanks for your work on pytest,
I really appreciate it!


Cheers,

Dan

On Sat, Feb 8, 2020 at 8:46 AM Ronny Pfannschmidt <
opensource at ronnypfannschmidt.de> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> since a while now i have stopped using irc directly/controlled and
> instead switched to a setup using matrix that i like much better.
>
> Matrix enables a few features that i really like, for example
>
> * multiple synced clients (on my computers and my mobile)
> * server side persistent history (where i don't have to manage/juggle logs)
>
> In addition my personal perception of the communication structure on
> matrix is close to irc in a sense.
> (this is a emotional perception hard to put into word, but i like that
> matrix is IRC-like with nice features while being not like slack&co at
> all).
>
> In order to see how acceptance works out for that,
> i'd like to set up a community with  a small number of channels for dev
> talk, support, general chatter.
>
> However before starting, i would like to get feedback from the community
> on the ML.
>
>
> -- Ron
>
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