Re: We can halve volume by not allowing nondevelopers to post

[Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>]

John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> writes:

> Right.  And what do we do when nobody wants to become a developer
> anymore because we don't even allow questions from non-developers to
> developers?

(For people skimming, there's a suggestion that I think might help at
the end.)

Basically, I agree that closing debian-devel is the wrong solution.
Debian's openness was fairly important when I first got involved
(years ago).  I started reading debian-user, then debian-devel,
started trying to help out, and finally joined.

I think that without some careful study of whether or not most of the
noise is coming from non-developers, we shouldn't even *consider*
restricting posting rights.  Frankly, I suspect that in this thread
alone, the noise from developers fighting about mailers far outweighs
that from non-developers (which is made more ironic by the fact that
using or not using Reply-To will do exactly *nothing* to cut down the
actual list volume).

Suggestion:

I would suggest that (as a test) we post a bi-weekly "Debian List
Guidelines" where we summarize all the lists, what they're for, how to
subscribe/unsubscribe, and most importantly, a few simple usage
guidelines like:

  debian-devel: please help keep the traffic on this list down.  All
  developers are expected to read debian-devel, and it's easy for its
  volume to become unmanageable.  Out of courtesy, please consider
  whether or not your post (initial or followup) might better be
  handled on one of the other lists, or via private mail.  That said,
  if you feel your post is appropriate, please make yourself heard.

  Also, if you do take some topic off the list and in the process of
  your continuing conversation about the issue discover important
  information, if you have the time, please consider summarizing your
  findings back to the list.  This can be really helpful, reducing
  traffic without losing useful information.

I think this might help.  In fact I suspect it could help a lot.
Unless people object, I'd be happy to try writing something up and
then posting the current version every two weeks or so (whatever
people think appropriate).  I would specifically avoid any flame-war
material like who you should reply to, etc.  Until (and unless) we
have a concensus about that, posting a position on it is only asking
for pointless contention.

-- 
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu> PGP=E80E0D04F521A094 532B97F5D64E3930