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The problem with an email loop is it has no visibility to newcomers. If you create a channel for a particular topic, then when someone new joins the team, you

The problem with an email loop is it has no visibility to newcomers. If you create a channel for a particular topic, then when someone new joins the team, you can point them to that channel to catch up.

kashyapc 6y ago
IIUC, Elric is referring to the usage of internal mailing lists, whose archives are (internally) open for anyone. Each discussion becomes a URL in its own right, and is blazing fast (given it is locally hosted); you can point the thread to the newcomer. I too think this is more effective than any chat "scroll-back" hosted on someone else's infrastructure—it can go down any moment.
bloak 6y ago
You point newcomers at the list archive (mailman or whatever)?
Jedd 6y ago
This is the same problem that TFA glosses over. From the article: > Having everything searchable makes it super easy for a) newcomers that can simply scroll back, and b) old timers such as me that forget and can also simply scroll back. The (false) implication being that in the 40 years we've had email, no one's worked out how to archive and index it. Worse, the disingenuous use of the word 'simply' here. For some years I've put effort into my comms to avoid the words 'simply', 'just', and similar whenever describing a task I wish upon someone else. It devalues the time, effort, and complexity that I'm demanding of someone else, by assuming the task I'm pushing onto them is trivial. In this case, trying to comprehend context, let alone nuance, from an instant interruption log, is a massive cognitive load. Timing / pace is completely lost when reviewing a big wall of short and sharp exchanges between multiple people. Compare and contrast reading an email thread where people aren't battling to be first / fast - but rather, to be coherent, concise, cogent, and considerate in their correspondence.
ekianjo 6y ago
> when when someone new joins the team What happens is that someone new joining the team will not even bother searching thru dozens of channels, they will use the chat system to ask questions instead. Completely failure of knowledge management.

kashyapc 6y ago

IIUC, Elric is referring to the usage of internal mailing lists, whose archives are (internally) open for anyone. Each discussion becomes a URL in its own right, and is blazing fast (given it is locally hosted); you can point the thread to the newcomer. I too think this is more effective than any chat "scroll-back" hosted on someone else's infrastructure—it can go down any moment.

bloak 6y ago

You point newcomers at the list archive (mailman or whatever)?

Jedd 6y ago

This is the same problem that TFA glosses over. From the article: > Having everything searchable makes it super easy for a) newcomers that can simply scroll back, and b) old timers such as me that forget and can also simply scroll back. The (false) implication being that in the 40 years we've had email, no one's worked out how to archive and index it. Worse, the disingenuous use of the word 'simply' here. For some years I've put effort into my comms to avoid the words 'simply', 'just', and similar whenever describing a task I wish upon someone else. It devalues the time, effort, and complexity that I'm demanding of someone else, by assuming the task I'm pushing onto them is trivial. In this case, trying to comprehend context, let alone nuance, from an instant interruption log, is a massive cognitive load. Timing / pace is completely lost when reviewing a big wall of short and sharp exchanges between multiple people. Compare and contrast reading an email thread where people aren't battling to be first / fast - but rather, to be coherent, concise, cogent, and considerate in their correspondence.

ekianjo 6y ago

> when when someone new joins the team What happens is that someone new joining the team will not even bother searching thru dozens of channels, they will use the chat system to ask questions instead. Completely failure of knowledge management.