Re: Making -devel discussions more viable
"Bernhard R. Link" <brlink@debian.org> writes:
> * Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> [120501 18:18]:
>> David Bremner <bremner@debian.org> writes:
>>> "Bernhard R. Link" <brlink@debian.org> writes:
>>>> My suggestion to everyone feeling the need to tell anyone on a public
>>>> mailing list that they should shut up because they are no contributors
>>>> is thus: Please refrain from any more posts to this discussion.
>>> I have nothing against this principle, and I do this. But I also stop
>>> reading such threads. And this means I read less and less of this list.
>> Right. As good as that idea sounds on the surface, what that actually
>> translates into in practice is making debian-devel useless.
> And how does enhancing the noise rate by adding mails not about
> technical arguments make the mailing lists useful?
That's why I drew the distinction between "on the surface" and "in
practice." On the surface, it's a good idea because one doesn't add to
the noise. In practice, it leaves the problem unaddressed and technical
contributors just leave.
Telling people that there's nothing they can do about the noise and they
should just give up and ignore it means that people will stop reading the
mailing list and the only people left to have discussions are the people
who enjoy the noise. I don't want technical decisions in this project to
only be discussed by people who enjoy the noise.
So, while "don't add to the noise" is *part* of the solution, if one just
says that and puts a period at the end, it makes the problem worse. It
needs to be part of a solution that actually *reduces the noise*.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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