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I don’t use mailing lists. Could touch tell me what is advantage of mailing list vs something modern like Zulip chat… in which you can turn off notifications an

I don’t use mailing lists. Could touch tell me what is advantage of mailing list vs something modern like Zulip chat… in which you can turn off notifications and just use as a website… they even have web public streams viewing if which doesn’t require any auth

doublerabbit 3y ago
Mailing lists only require an email to participate with, there is no requirement to make an account. They are very archivable, accessible and search engine friendly. The volume of availability and visibility is greater in audience than when compared to instant messaging. Nothing fancy required, you can access all issues and previous responses with ease from your own email inbox. Everyone can be on the same page rapidly. And the lookup of pervious correspondence is easier than with IM. You don't get interruptions like memes. Your responsible for what you post promoting maturity and professionalism. It provides easier development workflows. If a developer posts a patch, your able with ease in applying it to your terminal. As much confusion I have with the UI of web mailing lists it is one of the few tools that I think that outranks all other communication methods for development.
- solardev 3y ago
  Why not just a forum? Discourse, etc.?
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    They're tedious and those platforms are too rich when it comes down to serious developmental discussion. When your writing code raw, you need a service that supports raw discussion.
    - solardev 3y ago
      What do you mean? The ability to easily format code and inline snippets, screenshots, lists, etc has been super helpful to me relative to email (doing tech support that involves a lot of back and forth coding discussion).
      - doublerabbit 3y ago
        For tech support they're perfect. Such platforms are perfect for discussions about the patch or how to apply the patch. But if your trying to debug a kernel because sound is chopping or you've introduced a critical bug in your code; mail-lists allow you get straight to the point. Development machines may not have access to a web browser. Your still required to register an account and have the resources available to browse the site. If for whatever reason that discourse instance disappears you then loose everything. How would I obtain all the data? Email only requires an small amount of data, so you can craft replies where-ever and it keeps a hard copy. Regardless if you have internet or not, no email server you can still access previous threads.
        solardev 3y ago
        Hmm, I see. Thank you for the explanation! Sounds like a very different world than I've ever worked in :)
    - mratsim 3y ago
      Works fine for serious discussions away from memes in likely the most meme-y community, see https://ethresear.ch https://ethresear.ch
      - doublerabbit 3y ago
        The first thing I get on that page is a banner of "Unfortunately, your browser is unsupported. Please switch to a supported browser to view rich content, log in and reply." So if I had to rush a patch to discussion I'd be an issue.
        solardev 3y ago
        Just out of curiosity, what browser do you (either as an individual, or as a class of kernel devs) actually use? Discourse is so old, and so common... what doesn't support it? Lynx? A webkit derivative?

doublerabbit 3y ago

Mailing lists only require an email to participate with, there is no requirement to make an account. They are very archivable, accessible and search engine friendly. The volume of availability and visibility is greater in audience than when compared to instant messaging. Nothing fancy required, you can access all issues and previous responses with ease from your own email inbox. Everyone can be on the same page rapidly. And the lookup of pervious correspondence is easier than with IM. You don't get interruptions like memes. Your responsible for what you post promoting maturity and professionalism. It provides easier development workflows. If a developer posts a patch, your able with ease in applying it to your terminal. As much confusion I have with the UI of web mailing lists it is one of the few tools that I think that outranks all other communication methods for development.

solardev 3y ago
Why not just a forum? Discourse, etc.?
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  They're tedious and those platforms are too rich when it comes down to serious developmental discussion. When your writing code raw, you need a service that supports raw discussion.
  - solardev 3y ago
    What do you mean? The ability to easily format code and inline snippets, screenshots, lists, etc has been super helpful to me relative to email (doing tech support that involves a lot of back and forth coding discussion).
    - doublerabbit 3y ago
      For tech support they're perfect. Such platforms are perfect for discussions about the patch or how to apply the patch. But if your trying to debug a kernel because sound is chopping or you've introduced a critical bug in your code; mail-lists allow you get straight to the point. Development machines may not have access to a web browser. Your still required to register an account and have the resources available to browse the site. If for whatever reason that discourse instance disappears you then loose everything. How would I obtain all the data? Email only requires an small amount of data, so you can craft replies where-ever and it keeps a hard copy. Regardless if you have internet or not, no email server you can still access previous threads.
      - solardev 3y ago
        Hmm, I see. Thank you for the explanation! Sounds like a very different world than I've ever worked in :)
  - mratsim 3y ago
    Works fine for serious discussions away from memes in likely the most meme-y community, see https://ethresear.ch https://ethresear.ch
    - doublerabbit 3y ago
      The first thing I get on that page is a banner of "Unfortunately, your browser is unsupported. Please switch to a supported browser to view rich content, log in and reply." So if I had to rush a patch to discussion I'd be an issue.
      - solardev 3y ago
        Just out of curiosity, what browser do you (either as an individual, or as a class of kernel devs) actually use? Discourse is so old, and so common... what doesn't support it? Lynx? A webkit derivative?