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From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-06-27 19:29:53


On 2020-06-27 05:02, Zach Laine via Boost wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 6:05 PM Jeff Garland via Boost
> <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> However, where we might improve would be in lowering the bar to entry
> required just to submit a library for review. These hurdles currently
> exist:
>
> - This list is not very welcoming.

Personally, I like Boost ML very much, compared to some other mailing
lists I'm subscribed to. It has been very professional, technical and
helpful over the years that I'm participating, with remarkably little
spam, politics, rudeness and personal attacks.

I can see it could be intimidating for newcomers to join because of the
level of technical scrutiny this list exercises. But that scrutiny
ultimately leads to better libraries, which I think is a good thing.

> One committee proposal I know of
> that is exactly the right kind of thing for Boost did not submit to
> Boost because they felt this list was rude and combative. I don't
> know the details, so I don't know if this particular complaint is
> warranted. More generally, this list is hard for outsiders to
> penetrate; pretty good evidence for this is the fact that we have
> posts here mostly from the usual suspects, and new voices don't appear
> very often. I have no suggested fixes for this, unfortunately.

It is true that ML activity has reduced lately, but I suspect that some
amount of discussions have simply migrated to other platforms, like
GitHub and Slack.

Specifically on GitHub, I'll note that some of the bad reputation of
Boost comes from the lack of support of some libraries. People create
issues and PRs that are left unattended for years, which gives a bad
impression of Boost as a whole.


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