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

Tegan Dowling tmdowling at gmail.com
Fri Oct 27 12:23:46 CDT 2006


On 10/27/06, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> 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.

This is why I've suggested having a bulletin board, instead of a
mailing list.  A phpbb installation would not be a big deal to set up
or monitor, I wouldn't think.  It would allow threads to
self-organize, it would make it easy for people to participate at
their level of expertise while still having an easy way to "evesdrop"
or even kibbutz on discussions at other levels.

Anyone care to explain why this would not be a good thing?




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