Re: GNOME discussions

On Nov 2, 2022, at 10:29 AM, void <void@f-m.fm> wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 06:52:31AM +0000, Graham Perrin wrote:
> 
>> E-mail too often fails.
>> 
>> You can't fix this <https://wiki.freebsd.org/GrahamPerrin/email#Broken_threading.2C_disconnections>, for example.
> 
> in that particular case, I *think* that has to do with server side attachment limits/policies.
> 
> Looking at that thread, I see it's truncated in my mail client.
> But it's not limits set here or at my ISP (unless it is over 50MB encoded which is a typical ISP limit)
> 
> The actual threading of an email conversation was (or at least I thought it was)
> an email client competency, exclusively.
> 
> I still have a firm preference for email lists because of its relatively
> distributed nature and the bar to entry is a lot lower in terms of computing
> power. Many forums need for example javascript in order to work. Not everyone
> can have that enabled for a variety of reasons. In contrast, I think it's a
> safe bet that nearly everyone on the internet has an email address and access
> to an email client to read that email. Forums are nice to have in addition
> but IMO a bad idea for the sole repository of ideas and information
> in the context of a distributed project.


In the interests of full disclosure, I'll also state that I have a firm preference for e-mail lists.  Maybe it's just because I've been using e-mail lists for decades whereas "online communities" based around platforms like Discourse or Slack are relative newcomers (a Web 2.0 phenomenon).  However, a person who grew up in the Web 2.0 era of Facebook and Instagram might scratch their head in wonder why anyone would bother with e-mail.

That brings me to my point.  As someone who is involved in digital libraries and long term preservation at $JOB, I will offer the observation that it is difficult to preserve digital content successfully, and that e-mail is a simpler and more well-established digital artefact than something like a Discourse or Slack site.  The latter has a far more complicated (and less well-known) technology stack to preserve than e-mail messages.  If you value your history (e.g., as FreeBSD did when migrating its source code system from CVS -> SVN -> GIT) then preserving your past for future generations becomes a consideration.

FreeBSD provides several ways to engage in its community.  That is commendable.  I do hope they will continue to provide e-mail lists as one of its methods. :-)

Cheers,

Paul.