Mailing list policy
We have a problem with debian-private. Originally it was intended for
discussions that needed to be kept confidential, but people are now
using it to avoid noise in debian-devel. This has a number of adverse
consequences, including that some technical and other decisions are
being made in a place where they can't be archived or reviewed by
outsiders, and that the confidentiality restrictions on debian-private
are more frequently violated (because they are often inappropriate to
the topic).
Something needs to be done about this problem. We need to examine
what kind of postings are causing debian-devel to be too full. I'd
like people to discuss here on debian-devel what the problem is and
what to do about it, and then I or the mailing list policy manager
(when we have one) will make a decision.
** The rest of this posting is my current personal view on the matter,
and not an official leader pronouncement: ***
The following classes of postings and threads are helping to cause
this problem:
* Flamewars about `political' issues.
* Underinformed technical discussions, often involving nondevelopers
or developers who are amongst the less technically excellent of our
volunteers.
* Requests for help from nondevelopers.
* Requests for help from developers, but unrelated to development.
Several people have suggested splitting debian-devel. I don't think
this is a good solution, because we have no good criterion for the
split. Instead, I would propose that we tighten the rules for
debian-devel, as follows:
* No postings from nondevelopers. Nondevelopers should post to
debian-user. If a separate non-queries list for nondevelopers is
required (eg for political discussions) it should be created.
* Technical policy threads to be referred to debian-policy (which has
lower membership and higher technical standards). When a decision
comes back from debian-policy and is questioned we can point to the
archives for rationale to avoid repeating arguments.
* No requests for assistance unrelated to package maintenance. These
should go to debian-user. (Ie, `how do I get dpkg-dev to do XYZ'
is OK, but `how do I get pppd to do PQR' is not.)
The remaining item on my list of problem threads/postings, flamewars
about `political' issues, does truly belong in debian-devel - and has
been taking place occasionally in debian-private anyway.
Ian.
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: