Re: On improving mailing list [was: How to Boot Linux ISO Images Directly From Your Hard Drive Debian]
Andy Smith wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Sun, Aug 08, 2021 at 11:35:15AM +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > any ideas on how to make the situation better?
>
> To be honest I don't think that mailing lists are a very good venue
> for user support and I would these days prefer to direct people to a
> Stack Overflow-like site. The chief advantages of such sites are
> that posted problems are narrowed down to contain the required
> information, and answers are ranked so as to make poor answers (and
> ultimately, disruptive posters) disappear. Ask Ubuntu. I think,
> works well.
>
> There have been a few attempts to set up such sites for Debian, so
> that people could be directed to a site running on DFSG-free
> software instead of proprietary platforms like Stack Overflow. Sadly
> each of these efforts have foundered through lack of use.
If you particularly want to do this, CoDidact is a non-profit
developing and running a GNU Affero-licensed codebase for this
sort of thing. I know one of the founders, if you'd like an
introduction. https://codidact.org/
> I don't see the lack of use as an indictment of their effectiveness;
> rather I think it's just because it's too hard to change the status
> quo without significant work.
My opinion is that forum and Q/A-style systems are fundamentally
inferior to mailing lists for experts and advanced users, while
being friendlier to beginners.
> advertising on Debian's web site. The announcement threads on the
> mailing lists then got dominated by arguments from the same small
> group of people loudly and repeatedly arguing how they would never
> use or support such a thing. That's fine, but without a way to
The loud ones are partially the rude ones, but also all the
people who have been through this cycle several times and have
decided that there is nothing wrong with having mailing lists
for people who can deal with mailing lists.
> this for nuggets of on-topic wisdom and even when a post is
> on-topic, a newcomer often doesn't have the base knowledge to
> distinguish good answers from bad. I find it hard to justify
> subjecting someone to that.
This doesn't go away on forum or Q/A sites. Often the top-voted
answer is wrong or suboptimal or was correct ten years ago when
it was first asked but is incorrect now.
> If we have to continue using a mailing list for user support then my
> best suggestion would be to severely tighten up the on-topic
> requirements so that every post must be about use of Debian, and
> giving time-outs to posters who repeatedly can't stick to this.
This is reasonable. It is, however, a change in moderation that
will require a lot more work from volunteers.
-dsr-
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