Re: Replacing the ML with a forum

From: Andrzej Krzemienski (akrzemi1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-09-07 07:08:51

sob., 7 wrz 2024 o 09:04 Andrzej Krzemienski <akrzemi1_at_[hidden]>
napisał(a):

>
>
> 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.
>

Maybe I should clarify the one above. I participate in many WG21 (that is,
ISO C++) "reflectors", which are, I think, also email based. I appreciate
that I have a uniform interface from both these reflectors and Boost
mailing list.

Regards,
&rzej;

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
>
>
>