Re: Replacing the ML with a forum

From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-09-06 23:53:22

On Fri, Sep 6, 2024 at 4:05 PM Andrzej Krzemienski <akrzemi1_at_[hidden]>
wrote:

> śr., 26 kwi 2023 o 16:08 Vinnie Falco via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
> napisał(a):
>
>> Before we replace the mailing list with a forum (and implement a mail
>> gateway)
>
>
I want to be crystal clear here: no one is getting rid of the mailing list
:)

> If so, do you care if
>>
> discussions are changed to be flat (like Discourse)?
>
>
> What does "flat" mean here? I am not familiar with Discourse. Could we get
> a sample or example?
>

Great question. So, "threaded" means that the messages are presented in a
hierarchy. That is, when someone replies to a message the reply is nested.
Multiple replies to the same message are nested at the same level. And when
someone replies to a reply, it is nested relative to its reply. It is
probably easier to just show you what that looks like:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Nntp.jpg

Users of Boost's mailing list want threading, which became obvious a couple
of years ago when the mail provider was changed and the threading broke. I
can't find the discussion on this but it is there.

The author of Discourse is very much against threading, and he is vocal
about it:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/threaded-discussion-is-ultimately-too-complex-to-survive-on-the-public-internet/63172

The popularity of mailing lists has gone down significantly, although it is
still a format which offers advantages to active contributors. Younger
generations of developers prefer the immediacy of SnapChat, Discord, and
platforms like Reddit over mail subscriptions. To address this need, we
have been working on deploying a web-based front end to the mailing list.
This feature is part of mailman 3 and it is called "HyperKitty:"

https://docs.mailman3.org/projects/hyperkitty/en/stable/

Our deployment of HyperKitty has been paused while the governance issues
are being resolved and this is the latest snapshot (I don't think the
messages were imported):

https://lists.preview.boost.org/mailman3/lists/

With considerable effort we can work this into a solution which allows
existing contributors to use the mailing list as they are already
accustomed to using, while allowing new volunteers who prefer using a
browser to also participate. A side effect is that it will make browsing
the archives more pleasant.

Thanks