(Not) Changing the mailing list culture (Was: Re: How to ask a question?)
Hi,
On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 02:39:21PM -0000, Greg wrote:
> Every question is non-answered by an intimate clan of aging men with
> toxic attitudes and enormous anal-retention, who believe everyone
> should be using mutt or gnus like them and don't know or give a shit
> about anything else.
>
> It's really time for a change here.
I don't think that it's going to be possible to change the culture of
established technical mailing lists, nor does it seem likely that
starting a new technical mailing list would achieve what you want.
As you know we have had lengthy threads about this before, even this
month, so I hope I don't need to reiterate why I think this.
I would encourage you to try some other venues for support. I don't say
that to be dismissive. I say it because it seems like the only practical
choice (and it's the choice that I think ~everyone is going to converge
on). It really depends on what you're looking for.
I haven't personally looked at https://forums.debian.net/ for a while
but it seems active.
For question-answer I'd probably go for Unix & Linux StackExchange:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/
but there will be no discourse there, just attempts at answers to
specific questions.
If its semi-real-time chat you want, I lack recent experience (my days
were IRC days). It feels like there are few good solutions for that.
Matrix is the open source decentralised champion we pin all our hopes
on, and there are very active Debian Matrix rooms, but I cannot get
along with that system. I've tried many times.
The Debian IRC channels on OFTC are active. Though non-official, I'm
sure there's active Debian channels on Libera IRC.
Despite it being closed source, I get along with Telegram, and there's
some good groups on there. The closed source aspect and the fact that
there is some abhorrent content on the rest of Telegram makes it hard to
recommend.
Discord is probably the most popular chat platform in existence. It has
a staggering number of users and lots of technical groups. There's
almost certain to be plenty of choice of Debian content there. I
absolutely detest its interface, the fact that they don't allow third
party clients, the whole thing is far too busy with distractions and I
can't cope with it. Younger people seem to love it. There's even some
FOSS projects that use it as their main support venue. Baffling to me.
Is there something between all of those that you are looking for?
Thanks,
Andy
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