Re: [boost] Replacing the ML with a forum

On Fri, Sep 6, 2024 at 4:05 PM Andrzej Krzemienski wrote:

śr., 26 kwi 2023 o 16:08 Vinnie Falco via Boost napisał(a):

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Before we replace the mailing list with a forum (and implement a mail gateway)

I want to be crystal clear here: no one is getting rid of the mailing list :)

If so, do you care if

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discussions are changed to be flat (like Discourse)?

What does "flat" mean here? I am not familiar with Discourse. Could we get a sample or example?

Great question. So, "threaded" means that the messages are presented in a hierarchy. That is, when someone replies to a message the reply is nested. Multiple replies to the same message are nested at the same level. And when someone replies to a reply, it is nested relative to its reply. It is probably easier to just show you what that looks like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Nntp.jpg Users of Boost's mailing list want threading, which became obvious a couple of years ago when the mail provider was changed and the threading broke. I can't find the discussion on this but it is there. The author of Discourse is very much against threading, and he is vocal about it: https://meta.discourse.org/t/threaded-discussion-is-ultimately-too-complex-t... The popularity of mailing lists has gone down significantly, although it is still a format which offers advantages to active contributors. Younger generations of developers prefer the immediacy of SnapChat, Discord, and platforms like Reddit over mail subscriptions. To address this need, we have been working on deploying a web-based front end to the mailing list. This feature is part of mailman 3 and it is called "HyperKitty:" https://docs.mailman3.org/projects/hyperkitty/en/stable/ Our deployment of HyperKitty has been paused while the governance issues are being resolved and this is the latest snapshot (I don't think the messages were imported): https://lists.preview.boost.org/mailman3/lists/ With considerable effort we can work this into a solution which allows existing contributors to use the mailing list as they are already accustomed to using, while allowing new volunteers who prefer using a browser to also participate. A side effect is that it will make browsing the archives more pleasant. Thanks