Re: Volume on -devel
> -devel is very high volume, but I'd disagree with closing it off. Alot of
> potential developers subscribe/post.
>
> *please* can we have debian-stable and debian-unstable for questions (from
> end-users) about those distributions (we need debian-unstable).
>
I think a mailing list for each distribution, i.e. a debian-slink and a
debian-potato (and, if there is a need for it, a debian-rex etc) would
be useful. Much of the traffic on debian-devel (some of it on debian-user
as well, has really been from developers and others in their role as users
of the new unstable distribution.
People who subscribe to debian-user would be actually be subscribed to the
mailing list for the current stable distribution. People who were running
the unstable distribution would subscribe to that explicitly. This would
reduce traffic on debian-user, making it easier for new users, or people only
interested in the current stable distribution, to find answers to their
questions.
Many people would be subscribed to more than one list (I have machines running
hamm, slink and potato) but would unsubscribe from old lists as they upgraded.
Looking at the numbers of people subscribed to each list would give us an
idea of how many people are running old distributions.
The advantage of this scheme over using debian-stable and debian-unstable
comes when we release a new distribution. It lets people change mailing lists
according to which distribution they are actually running. It may seem
strange at the moment, but one day potato will be the new stable distribution.
John Lines
p.s. I am in favour of leaving debian-devel open to submissions from non
developers. One of the strengths of Debian is the way that problems are
aired openly (which sometimes leads to flame wars). As long as everyone,
developer and non-developer alike, reads the contributions of others, and
refrains from writing when they are not actually adding to the discussion,
the process works very well. There are times when someone who is not currently
a developer will have some particular insight into a problem, e.g. upstream
authors, or experienced users, and their contribution is extremely valuable.
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