7 ms·

I notice they're using Google Groups for mailing lists - how have people found Google Groups as a technical mailing list provider?

by caf 11y ago

scrollaway 11y ago
It's not bad, to be honest, just a bit awkward to use if you don't have a google account (it's sometimes fairly hard to subscribe without one). I wouldn't recommend it for FOSS projects. Unfortunately, there's not much alternative out there. I'm currently looking at Discourse, which has a mailing list mode. We might move to that.
- justincormack 11y ago
  freelists.org is what I have been using for mailing lists.
inglor 11y ago
I participate in several Google Groups for large projects. I hate it - I find navigation not obvious, discussions aggregated poorly, formatting inconsistent and content not prioritised. I much prefer discourse or even GitHub issues.
- thomasahle 11y ago
  Surely those issues are not related to using Google Groups as an email list?
  - inglor 11y ago
    Correct, but I do find github issues - even as an email list much nicer.
fletchowns 11y ago
They tried to move the Chef mailing list to Google but it didn't work out. Not sure what they had issues with. https://www.chef.io/blog/2015/02/04/14389/ https://www.chef.io/blog/2015/02/04/14389/
tenfingers 11y ago
Horrid. Besides poor threading (I'm speaking about the UI itself), it's unbelievable how HEAVY google groups feels when loading and using their web interface. It's so sad to think that google groups was the best interface ever to nntp in the past when it took over dejanews. But it doesn't stop there. I had endless problems with regular subscribers ending up as junk. Likewise, as a subscriber, I had several issues in the past with subscription, where I had to contact the owner of the list and "debug" the issue (like there's anything to debug really: it just goes to junk and there's nothing you can do). It doesn't help that google groups doesn't show prominently the fact that it's a regular list you can subscribe to without creating any account. Fortunately, google groups generally plays well with gmane.org, so as long as they don't screw that up, I couldn't care less.
- DanBC 11y ago
  > It's so sad to think that google groups was the best interface ever to nntp in the past when it took over dejanews. The best WWW interface! slrn or pan or almost any other newsreader were great.
- bostonvaulter2 11y ago
  Do you prefer gmane's interface over google groups?
  - tenfingers 11y ago
    Yes. I just use a news reader via gmane. And via web, the "threaded view" is blazing fast.
tacone 11y ago
No clue, but I hate it so much that I routinely abstain to partecipate to the discussions of the projects who happen to choose it for their mailing lists. I just can't help it.
ta0967 11y ago
they lose emails. subscriber sends an email to the list, it's accepted, and then it only appears in the web interface, nobody receives an email. or, the mailing list does distribute the email but it never appears in the web interface.

I notice they're using Google Groups for mailing lists - how have people found Google Groups as a technical mailing list provider?

by caf 11y ago

I notice they're using Google Groups for mailing lists - how have people found Google Groups as a technical mailing list provider?

scrollaway 11y ago

It's not bad, to be honest, just a bit awkward to use if you don't have a google account (it's sometimes fairly hard to subscribe without one). I wouldn't recommend it for FOSS projects. Unfortunately, there's not much alternative out there. I'm currently looking at Discourse, which has a mailing list mode. We might move to that.

justincormack 11y ago
freelists.org is what I have been using for mailing lists.

inglor 11y ago

I participate in several Google Groups for large projects. I hate it - I find navigation not obvious, discussions aggregated poorly, formatting inconsistent and content not prioritised. I much prefer discourse or even GitHub issues.

thomasahle 11y ago
Surely those issues are not related to using Google Groups as an email list?
- inglor 11y ago
  Correct, but I do find github issues - even as an email list much nicer.

fletchowns 11y ago

They tried to move the Chef mailing list to Google but it didn't work out. Not sure what they had issues with. https://www.chef.io/blog/2015/02/04/14389/ https://www.chef.io/blog/2015/02/04/14389/

tenfingers 11y ago

Horrid. Besides poor threading (I'm speaking about the UI itself), it's unbelievable how HEAVY google groups feels when loading and using their web interface. It's so sad to think that google groups was the best interface ever to nntp in the past when it took over dejanews. But it doesn't stop there. I had endless problems with regular subscribers ending up as junk. Likewise, as a subscriber, I had several issues in the past with subscription, where I had to contact the owner of the list and "debug" the issue (like there's anything to debug really: it just goes to junk and there's nothing you can do). It doesn't help that google groups doesn't show prominently the fact that it's a regular list you can subscribe to without creating any account. Fortunately, google groups generally plays well with gmane.org, so as long as they don't screw that up, I couldn't care less.

DanBC 11y ago
> It's so sad to think that google groups was the best interface ever to nntp in the past when it took over dejanews. The best WWW interface! slrn or pan or almost any other newsreader were great.
bostonvaulter2 11y ago
Do you prefer gmane's interface over google groups?
- tenfingers 11y ago
  Yes. I just use a news reader via gmane. And via web, the "threaded view" is blazing fast.

tacone 11y ago

No clue, but I hate it so much that I routinely abstain to partecipate to the discussions of the projects who happen to choose it for their mailing lists. I just can't help it.

ta0967 11y ago

they lose emails. subscriber sends an email to the list, it's accepted, and then it only appears in the web interface, nobody receives an email. or, the mailing list does distribute the email but it never appears in the web interface.