[Python-ideas] A bit meta

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 31.01.2016 22:11, Nicholas Chammas wrote:
>> If both Discourse and Mailman can live side-by-side, with
>> Discourse being the “web interface” to the Mailman list,I think we’d get
>> the best of both worlds.
> 
> Funny you ask that, since I wondered about exactly the same thing when I
> looked into using Discourse for an Apache project. The Apache Software
> Foundation has a strict policy about ASF-owned mailing lists being the
> place of discussion, so the only way Discourse would have been able to play
> a role was as an interface to an existing, ASF-owned mailing list.
> 
> Here is the discussion I started about this
> <https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-a-front-end-for-existing-asf-mailing-lists/23167/2>
> on Discourse Meta around a year ago.
> 
> In short, I think the answer that came out from that discussion is (quoting
> <https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-a-front-end-for-existing-asf-mailing-lists/23167/2?u=nicholaschammas>
> Jeff Atwood; emphasis his):
>
> """
> This really depends on the culture of the mailing list. Discourse has
> fairly robust email support (for notifications, and if configured, for
> replies and email-in to start new topics), but it is still fundamentally
> web-centric in the way that it views the world. There will be clashes for
> people who are 100% email-centric.
> 
> Do you have support from the “powers that be” at said mailing lists to make
> such a change? Are they asking for such a change? We are very open to
> working with a partner on migrating mailing lists and further enhancing the
> mailing list support in Discourse, but it very much requires solid support
> from the *leadership* and a significant part of the *community*.
> 
> There’s a lot of friction involved in changes for groups!
> """

Jeff's reply doesn't sound overly optimistic.

If the only way to get Discourse working for python-ideas
(or any other PSF mailing list) is to *switch* to it, I'm
firmly -1 on that approach.

Forums are nice for things like Stack Overflow which are focusing
more on questions and answer, with just a single linear
thread being active going from the question to the answer.

For discussions, which often branch in multiple sub-threads and
don't necessarily start with a clear questions and final answers,
I find mailing lists much more practical and closer to real life
discussions in groups. Mailing list discussion "features" like
being able to overhear something in another thread and the jumping in
to participate should not be underestimated either.

I know that other tools have grown bridges between the UI client
world and serial line communication protocols, e.g. Slack and IRC,
which works reasonably well. If we could make that happen,
I'd be +1 on giving Discourse a try in order to invite new
input from people who prefer the forum style UI approach.

PS: I've added some extra quoting chars to your reply. HTML
emails don't work well for mailing lists - better use plain
text to start with, so that the context is not lost when
an email client or archiver converts messages to plain text :-)

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