Re: splitting up the debian-user mailing list
Bruce Perens wrote:
> It's getting kind of loud here. I've been thinking of splitting the
> debian-user list into several lists
>
> Comments?
As others have pointed out, splitting the list could very well create more
problems than it solves. We should not go down this road without some
careful thinking.
__What do we want to achieve?__
1. Newcommers to Debian can be overwhelmed by the volume of mail on the
list. Unless we find a way of providing them with assistance without
requiring them to sort through large volumes of email, we are likely to
lose many prospective new users.
2. The volume is too large for everything to be read by everyone. We need
a scheme which assists people in filtering out email they're not
interested in. At the same time, we don't want to filter so effectively
that people narrow their interests too much.
3. We need a scheme that assists and encourages people in donating time to
helping others on the list.
4. We need to minimise unneccessary posts.
__A Proposal__
Others have had some good ideas. I've tried to use some of these to
create a proposal that I hope will go a long way towards satisfying the
above goals. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
1. Retain a the debian-user list as the main list. As someone else
proposed, create a number of different "Topics". Each email must
include a valid "topic" at the start of the subject line in square
brackets. Otherwise the post is rejected with a polite message
asking the sender to include a valid topic in their post.
Eg,
[PPP] pon doesn't work properly
[LIST] should we split the list?
[GENERAL] Did anyone see article in Woman's Weekly on Debian?
[INSTALL] Can't install Debian 1.3
(for overlapping in topics, we could allow multiple topics)
[PPP,INSTALL] Can't install ppp
In this way, the sender would be forced to give information which
would assist readers of the list to filter their email - either
automatically, or simply through visual scanning of subject lines.
2. Create a special topic called NEWBIE (or something else if people
don't like the name). Also create a separate mail list "debian-newbie".
This would hopefully be a low volume mailing list designed for people new
to Debian. When they post to it, posts would also be sent to debian-user
with the subject line given [NEWBIE] as a prefix. Newcommers could then
have access to help without becomming overwhelmed by email. As they
became more familiar with Debian, newbies would be encouraged to move
to debian-user. Hopefully the debian-newbie list would give new users
time to prepare for the volume of debian-user. It would also help us
to ensure that newbies are being looked after.
3. In addition to calling for package maintainers, we can also call for
volunteers to form "Topic Teams". Each team would comprise people with
some expertise in the topic. Hopefully people would volunteer for more
than one team. The idea would be that you would make an extra effort to
read email and help out on those topics for which you volunteer. Topic
teams would also be responsible for creating FAQs to answer frequently
asked questions and to solve frequently encountered problems.
4. Create some special topics that only certain people have permission to
post under. Eg the topic [NEWS] could be restricted to Debian developers
for the dissemination of important Debian news and information.
5. One idea put forward was that people should reply to questions
directly, not via the list. Later, the questioner would post a summary to
the list. While this would work sometimes, at times it is actually
helpful for the discussion to occur via the list. I suggest that rather
than making legalistic rules about posting privately, we instead encourage
people to only post to the list when it really is useful. Get people to
think about which discussions might be better carried out in private. We
could come up with an "Etiquette" document - listing ways people can cut
down on unneccessary posts.
The problem of the volume of this list is a difficult one. We need better
methods of handling it, but we must be careful that in doing so we don't
damage the usefulness of the list. The proposal I've outlined above is
the best I could come up with after thinking about the problem.
Cheers,
Mark.
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Mark Phillips mark@ist.flinders.edu.au
"They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
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