Re: IM dev discussions?

[Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@gmail.com>]

Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:

>> Sure. It is always nice to have historical records on why certain
>> decisions have been made.
>
> It is not just to be able to keep track of discussions that led to
> decisions: it is also to be able to be as *inclusive* as possible.
>
> Of course, time and skills (and other psychological traits) are the
> main parameters deciding whether someone can participate to these
> discussions: but the more they take place on the mailing list, the
> more inclusive they are IMHO.
>
> (I know this opinion is debatable: most <30yo (<35yo) hackers out
> there will say that relying on a mailing list for such discussions
> wards them off, insisting we should go on GitHub... but *anyone* can
> send an email to a list, while only registered GitHub users can open
> an issue. We certainly don't want to encourage anyone to register on
> GitHub.)

I do agree that email is the most accessible option from technical
perspective.

However, something being accessible _technically_ does not mean that it
is accessible psychologically. People used to GitHub workflows will be
(and are) reluctant to use email. Not because they can't, but simply
because it requires stepping aside the developed habits (yes, it is how
GitHub and other social platforms catch us [1]).

Familiarity is important. It does not matter if the discussion is done
via mailing list or any other means under the hood. People just want
familiar navigation and front-end logic. Ideally, it would be nice to
have ML front-end that looks similar to GitHub issues. I recall the
latest versions of mailman had somewhat familiar look. Sourcehut is also
trying to implement a web-based front-end (though is it not familiar at
all, unfortunately).

Note that the opposite to the above is not true. We should not prefer
familiar front-ends at the cost of sacrificing technical accessibility.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism

-- 
Ihor Radchenko,
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