Re: Replacing the ML with a forum

From: Andrzej Krzemienski (akrzemi1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-09-07 07:04:39

sob., 7 wrz 2024 o 01:53 Vinnie Falco <vinnie.falco_at_[hidden]> napisał(a):

> 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.
>

First of all, thank you so very much for making this herculean effort.
Making a service that provides the new interface as well as the old
interface seem like a super-hard task to me.

Now I better understand the question, so, currently, when I am using a
Gmail client.
1. I receive new messages, and notifications about them, from many forums,
Boost mailing list being only one of them.
2. I receive notifications (e.g. on my mobile) about replies to threads I
participate in.
3. I can see which messages I didn't read yet (they are highlighted as
unread)
4. I can mark a read message as unread, so that I know I need to get back
to it again.
5. I have a list of threads
6. For each thread I can see a flat sequence of messages, which are unread.
7. I can reply, and also add individuals from outside the members, to each
individual message, and quote arbitrary parts of the previous content.
8. When I reply, sometimes I need to reshuffle or multiply the quoted text,
or use quotes from multiple messages.
9. I do search for some words in the messages or authors' messages

I do not use the following, because I don't have them, but if you could
make them work, that would be great:
W1. Enable me to use Markdown in the messages (not being able to do that is
a pain for me)
W2. Threaded messages. I could live without them though.

Regards,
&rzej