Re: [BuildStream] About patch notifications via email

[Agustín Benito Bethencourt <agustin benito codethink co uk>]

Hi,

On Friday, 20 July 2018 09:29:12 CEST Tristan Van Berkom via Buildstream-list 
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> At the pre GUADEC team meeting there was some discussion about
> receiving patches by email, and I'm unsure that we are all in alignment
> about what has to be done.
>
> This also does not appear to have been discussed since on the mailing
> list as far as I can see, so before something drastic happens I want to
> touch base on this point again.

It has been a matter of a few mails: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/
buildstream-list/2018-July/msg00008.html

> My understanding was that:
>
>   o We want to reduce noise from gitlab notifications, such that we
>     only receive notifications that are relevant.
>
>   o When we do get notifications from gitlab about a patch which has
>     been updated and is under review (either because we watch all of
>     gitlab notifications like I do, or because we are subscribed to a
>     specific issue), then we want to get the patch in the email itself,
>     so we don't have to visit gitlab to view it.
>
>   o Some have expressed a desire to have a feed of commits which land
>     on master, I agree that this is desirable.
>
> On the implementation side of this, it seems that some have understood
> this to mean "Let's send the patch notifications to buildstream-list".
>
> I think that this specific course of action is wrong and would like
> feedback before this happens. My reasoning is that:
>
>   o We want people to subscribe and stay subscribed to our project
>     mailing list - we want as much mind share as we can get.
>
>   o A very typical deciding factor for whether somebody subscribes,
>     or remains subscribed after a period of time when they really
>     needed to be subscribed, is the level of traffic/volume of the
>     mailing list.

... that cannot be easily filtered.

>   o Saying that "people can create filters in their email client"
>     is a bit of a cop out, it's not a kind statement towards
>     whomever might decide to start contributing to the project.

I disagree with this statement.

>   o Finally, there is a lot of precedent for this sort of thing,
>     having a channel for receiving updates on what lands in master
>     is valuable; the solution usually involves using a separate
>     mailing list, e.g. "buildstream-commit-list".

There are also precedents of avoiding list dispersion, taking advantage of the 
possibilities filtering offers, specially when there is a risk that technical 
discussions can be spread into different mailing lists.

> I strongly suggest that if we implement a feed for commit
> notifications, that we use a separate communications channel for that
> than we do for general project related discussion.
>
> Does anyone feel that we really should be sending commit notifications
> to the same mailing list that we use for high level project related
> discussion ?

I have no problem setting up two mailing lists.

Best Regards

-- 
Agustín Benito Bethencourt
Principal Consultant
Codethink Ltd
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