Re: Debian is testing Discourse
On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 11:45:02 +0300, Reco wrote:
> Why are you doing this?
> […] Secondly, I genuinely believe that ease of access to new
> contributors is of paramount importance to the project.
I'd say a mailing list is actually way *more* accessible, than some web forum
(esp. with javascript). For one thing virtually everyone already has an email,
so no additional accounts/pw need to be managed.
Furthermore customising the display of plain text emails to fit your needs is
easy, while doing the same with discourse requires more work and knowledge – or
might not be feasible for the non-text elements of discourse.
(E.g. increasing font size and contrast to make up for bad eyesight, using
different fonts due to preference or to help with dyslexia etc )
> Be specific!
> Ok... I think *debian-user*, debian-vote and possibly debian-project
> would be better off in Discourse. […]
While I'm not eligible to vote in debian matters, I'd say that *especially*
debian-vote should *not* be in discourse.
One reason is the accessibility mentioned above, another reason is that I
believe the absence of likes etc on debian-votes to be a *good* thing. This
helps to avoid influencing the readers and gives all proposals a fairer chance.
Let's say supporters of one proposal are primarily using discourse and all like
the proposal, while another proposal has roughly the same amount of supporters,
but the supporters are using the mail interface and can't like/don't see a point
in liking.
This will distort perceived support for the proposals.
Also I think that taking the time to write down what you believe to be
good/bad about a proposal instead of +1/-1 helps everyone to get a better
picture on the situation.
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