[Python-ideas] Personal views/filters (summaries) for discussions

[Ned Batchelder]

On 4/28/2013 11:37 AM, anatoly techtonik wrote:
>
> An ability to edit and enhance these filters will allow to devote a 
> small bits of free time to analyze and summarize the discussion state 
> instead of requiring a single big piece to reread the whole discussion.
>
> This way you can split the task of dealing with complexity over time, 
> which I think is more than actual nowadays. IMO this process can be 
> very beneficial for Python development.
> -- 
> anatoly t.

Anatoly, there are dozens if not hundreds of collaboration tools. Each 
implements a particular model of how people will work together, and each 
has its proponents and detractors. Large projects like CPython use 
mailing lists because email is an established platform-agnostic 
technology that everyone has access to.  It's not fancy, and there are 
issues like top vs bottom posting; people quoting too much, or not 
enough; threads being derailed; etc.  But human communication is 
inherently messy and difficult.  I very much doubt that any structured 
tool would find wide acceptance, or would significantly change the 
dynamics of our discussions together.

People are difficult: they all think differently, in different 
languages, on different time scales, in different time zones.  An idea I 
think is obviously good, you may think is obviously bad. Getting to the 
heart of how two reasonable people can disagree so starkly is difficult 
work.  No amount of workflow is going to make it easier.  Don't invest 
in collaboration tools.  Invest in understanding people.

Proposing changes to Python is difficult.  There are many people who 
need convincing, and convincing them takes time.  They will have 
objections that have to be addressed, and it may be difficult to 
understand their objections.  The original proposal may have been 
unclear, and you have to work to figure out what was obvious to you that 
has to be spelled out, and then spell it out.  This is all a lot of 
work, and it takes a lot of time.  I don't see a way around that.  If 
someone understood the entire discussion well enough to apply filters, 
etc, then we'd already have reached an agreement.

I don't know how much appetite the Python-ideas list will have for 
further discussions of these ideas.  Feel free to write to me off-list 
if you like.

--Ned.

>
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