[pmwiki-users] Is it time for a pmwiki-devel list?

[Patrick R. Michaud]

Yesterday a long-time supporter and developer for PmWiki (since 2002)
mentioned to me that if he was just starting today with PmWiki, he
would likely be very intimidated by the programming and design 
discussions now taking place on the pmwiki-users mailing list.  

Of course, I think it's great that we have such discussions 
on the mailing list -- it's a sign of a very healthy community.  
But I also don't want newcomers to feel intimidated by pmwiki-users.
I also know that the traffic on pmwiki-users has jumped substantially
over the past couple of months, and given recent discussions and
development efforts I don't know that it's likely to diminish on its
own.

So, I'm wondering if we've finally reached the point where it's
time to established a separate "pmwiki-devel" mailing list for
some of these advanced discussions, so that pmwiki-users can
become a little less intimidating for newcomers.

My thinking is that "pmwiki-devel" would be a list for detailed
discussions of PmWiki internals and for admins that may be wanting
to push PmWiki's boundaries and limits beyond the core and
basic recipes.

We would continue to have "pmwiki-users" for general questions
and discussions concerning PmWiki.  I would also want to continue
the philosophy that pmwiki-users be open to questions and discussions
at all levels--including development-related items.

In other words, my intent would not be to forbid development-related
discussions from occuring the existing pmwiki-users mailing list, 
but to simply provide another forum where more advanced discussions 
may take place without intimidating or flooding the general
population.  I'd want it to always be permissible to post a message
on any topic to either pmwiki-users or pmwiki-devel, and if we
think another forum would be better then we can redirect it.

Any comments or thoughts on this idea?  Yes, in the past I have
argued against creating a separate "-devel" list, but that was
because I didn't feel we had reached the level where a separate
list was warranted.  I'm thinking we may have now reached that
point.

If you just want to indicate agreement or disagreement with
the idea of a new pmwiki-devel list, feel free to reply to me
privately instead of to the list.  And, as always, comments
and questions to pmwiki-users are always welcomed.

Thanks!

Pm