Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

Hi all,

I personally believe that the activity on the maemo-community list should be moved to the talk.maemo.org Community forum.

This forum is a low-activity forum (no crazy post-a-minute threads here) and it can be tracked without too much pain by the wider community just by visiting the Community forum's front page now and then.

Because talk.maemo.org is more user-centric than the mailing lists (which tend to be more developer-centric), and because talk.maemo.org is so regularly and thoroughly indexed by Google, posts in this forum will receive wider attention, which is important for community issues.

Anyway, that's my position. Discuss and debate! :)

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

I don't use that mailing list, and I suspect you're right about moving it, because of the type of list it is.

However the one big problem I have with talk.maemo.org is that I haven't found any way to be notified of replies to messages I have posted. That makes responding to replies and therefore back-and-forth conversation nearly impossible. Some people seem to prefer forums anyway despite that. I don't understand why. But there are other redeeming features in forums like searchability, active topics etc.

My point is that on mailing lists, responding to replies to form a conversation is normal, and that's lost by moving to a forum like this one. The people who use the list might miss that, so maybe they should be asked :)

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

To get a notification of replies on a thread you are following, you have to subscribe to it:

http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-14_1301.png

And then choose "Instant notification by email."
http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-14_1304.png

The system will email you automatically of any replies to the thread. Links are provided in the email so you can easily go to that thread or reply.

You can unsubscribe to previously subscribed thread anytime.


EDIT: Another way is if you are creating a new thread or just posting a reply, if you are using the advanced editor, it will give you an option to automatically follow that thread:

http://content.screencast.com/users/...01-14_1310.png

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

Two off-the-cuff comments before I mull it over at length.

One is simply that different people like different forms of communication. I know at least one person who gets all her Maemo news and info via twitter and won't post here. It's what works for her. Maybe some people simply prefer a mailing list.

Secondly, could it be that the reason the devs use the mailing is is precisely because this place has become highly user-orientated. In other words, they go there to escape us, and come here to find us when they want us. I am under impression there was a dev-specific IRC channel created recently, too , after #maemo has become a bit too user-focussed for some. (Can't say I noticed - about 95% of #maemo goes over my head so I assume a fair proportion are still devs!)

The question is, are you trying to remove a way for the devs to communicate amongst themselves away from the users? because if so, are you sure that's what they want?

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

True, I read both and some mailings already have a thread in here but even after asked to post here still mails on that topic come into my mailbox. Common sense? Does it need an integration of the community mailinglists into the forum? Automailing forum responses to the mailinglist?
It took me ages to get used to forums as the S/N sucks most of the time.


To keep the S/N ratio good I suggest to keep this subforum cleaner as any other. Or try to clean the whole forums. Dont know if deleting useless comments would help?! (Maybe collecting them in a special thread for Guiness is an idea too...)
Reading or not even reading... just scrolling one page of non'sense shouldn't be the case in here.

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

It's funny-- the light traffic works for and against this place. It's great to avoid the spam... but disappointing when I'm looking for feedback on an important topic and get a mere handful of replies.

But then, the mailing list exhibits the same unfortunate behavior...

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

I dont use the mailing list. Didn't even know there was one :D.

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

Could we reduce this to pointing to some FAQ please?

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/faq.p...b3_board_usage

Re: Move maemo-community mailing list activity to this forum
 

No, that's not what I mean. I mean there's no way to be notified specifically of replies to the comments you have posted yourself.

I'm already using the facility to auto-subscribe to threads where I have posted, and rather than get notification by email (which became too much email very quickly), I can use the "Control Panel" to see which threads I commented on have recieved more comments.

But if someone responds to something specific I've said, it is virtually impossible to find out except on the very low traffic threads, so It's virtually impossible to reply to their reponse. E.g. if someone asks a question, I won't be able to answer, and if I have a specific question, it's hard work to get at the answer - at least without catching up on whole threads. But the busier threads are too long for that. It takes too long to skim everything else; doesn't scale.

That's completely different from a mailing list, where you have threads, the ability to kill subthreads, and replies to your posts show up differently so you can respond to them immediately.

I suspect that's why development uses lists more than forums, and it tends to be lost when a list is changed to a forum.

This was somewhat discussed before and if I remember right, the main reason on having the mailing list is it is just easier for developers / Maemo team to reply via email.

I'm not really against it, but is it really necessary to maintain six mailing lists? I suggest to just maintain one and move others here at Talk.

The problem is there on both sides. I am subscribed to several mailing lists and I do get emails of topics I just don't care about. What's worse is that there is no unsubscribe for that particular topic, so I get all the email replies on that topic, forever... ;)