Number of mailing lists [ was Re: fuzzy thinking ... ]

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Michael Meeks <michael ximian com> writes:

>         There seems to be a consensus that absolutely loads of mail on a
> list is in some way good.

I think the consensus is rather that loads of lists where nobody
knows what goes where is bad.
 
>         May I put the opposite point - eg. mail on gtk-devel often remains
> unanswered for long periods. Bug reports and patches posted there are
> often ignored - they have to be put in bugzilla etc. etc.

Would it be easier for me to answer every question on gtk-devel-list
if it was split up into glib-devel-list, pango-devel-list, gdk-devel-list,
and gtk-devel-list? Of course not. It would just mean that
its more likely things would fall between the cracks, and
I'd see the same messages over and over again on different
lists.

Most people actually find a system like bugzilla to be the
best way of tracking bug reports and issues, because it allows:

 - Prioritization
 - Flexible queries [ I can view all GTK+ bugs or only GtkTextView bugs ]
 - Collaborative responsibility for handling bug reports
 - Public indication of status
 [ etc. ] 

Trying to squeeze this all into the read and replied marks
in my mail reader is a painful excercise that I have no
intention whatsoever of doing. 

>         I try to read and reply where appropriate to every mail on
> gnome-components-list and orbit-list, if these disappear into some 'one
> big mailing list' morass - then either:

I'm happy that this works well for you, and nobody is going
to force you to combine any of the lists for projects that
you maintain. 

But the bearing of this on the general GNOME development lists
is minimal -- the argument "if there is a tightly focused mailing
list, someone can use it as their bug tracker" only holds
water if:

 - There is a tight binding between people and the projects
   covered on each list.
 - Responsibility for bugs for the projects covered on each
   list is handled by one person who likes doing things this way.

Even I haven't known where to send a lot of mails recently, which
has resulted in the misuse of inappropriate lists like gnome-2-0-list and
gnome-hackers for development discussions. If people don't know
where to send mail, and people don't know what lists to read,
the idea that tightly focused lists gives you tightly focused
communication doesn't hold water.

Regards,
                                        Owen