[darcs-devel] Merging darcs-devel and darcs-users into a single mailing list

Gwern Branwen gwern0 at gmail.com
Wed Apr 16 22:21:14 UTC 2008


Hi everyone. So I happened to notice <http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2008-April/011722.html> while searching today:

> 'Whoa.  For those who didn't follow the link, it's to an announcement on
> darcs-devel that Darcs 2.0.0 has been released.

> I'm subscribed to darcs-users because I thought it would bring me that
> kind of information.  Was it a deliberate choice not to announce it
> here, or just an oversight?'

It turns out to have been an oversight, but I still think it's worth noting.

While we're revamping darcs and project structures and merging development branches, perhaps we should merge the two mailing lists.

This strikes me as a good idea. Two mailing lists is adding complexity beyond what is necessary; if you really want to follow darcs, you have to subscribe to both, and that leads to confusion sometimes. (Not to tout myself, but I didn't even realize there was a mailing list beyond darcs-dev until today.)

Further, looking through March on darcs-users <http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2008-March/thread.html>, I see a lot of stuff which is quite obviously -dev business, like this one: <http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2008-March/011593.html>.

Doesn't look like anyone answered him.

This wouldn't cause any problems, I don't think. -user has a significant trend downward to somewhere around 30KB a month from 300KB in April 2005, while -devel is still a active mailing list.

I'd note that while -users and -dev may be a traditional split, it isn't necessary. XMonad and Yi get along fine with a single mailing list to which developers and users both subscribe, and in my experience, they're better projects (lighter-weight, better consensuses, a faster & more user-driven dev cycle) for not being segmented. In short, I see no downside to a single 'darcs' mailing list subsuming darcs-dev and darcs-users.

Thoughts? I know from #darcs that I'm not alone in this sentiment.

--
gwern
SP4 CDC rogue Flintlock Embassy loch HAARP W3 press-release SAFE
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