On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 02:16:56PM -0800, Andrew Ettinger wrote:
I was thinking we should install / use a listserver for the other
teams, so they don't have to go through LaunchPad...
Finally. However, I already see a big problem emerging: we are getting
too many channels with no clear definition of each one's purpose.
Having to follow both the forum and the lists will become a pain very
quickly, and we should resolve this as early as possible.
The only things that speak for a web forum are that less tech-savvy
people can use it more easily and that moderators can move, split and
merge threads. However, it is easy to DDOS, provides only very basic
search functions (no regexps, rate-limited), is insecure (SMF stores
passwords in the clear AND mails them around!), and lacks tree threads
and message-level read management. Mailing lists OTOH are fully
decentralized, searchable on the client-side (reducing server load),
support tree threads, offer far better read management (i.e. one has to
only hit a key to read the next unread message), and official posts can
be cryptographically signed so everyone knows they're genuine. There
will be some reasons that the Linux kernel developers don't use a forum
as the primary means of communication. I for one have developed kind of
an aversion to web forums.
I created the wiki page "Communicational architecture" to collect
thoughts on this, but it's not really well structured yet. An
exhaustive compilation of pros and cons regarding the decision between
mailing lists and forum (and other means of communication) should be
made there.
Is there something easier to manage subscribe / unsubscribe than
MajorDomo that we could install? (given that this is for non-technical
staff)
IMHO the optimal (i.e. most secure and reliable) solution would be to
use ezmlm and qmail. However, since that requires quite a bit of
knowhow, my guess is that we will have to settle for something else.
If MajorDomo is too arcane, GNU Mailman would be the next best
alternative, I think. There also exists a software called "Syncom"
whose purpose it is to sync Mailman mailing lists and a phpBB forum
using a news server. So it would technically be possible to use both a
forum and a mailing list, but from what I've heard the software is a
huge pain and has limitations. As the saying goes: "It is bad when one
thing becomes two."
Maybe we should also ponder a bit about a mailing list naming scheme.
An idea to start with:
{prefix}{type}{sep}{team}{sep}{geo}@{domain}
sep: "-"
prefix: "osdf-|", "x-"
type: "info|announce|memo","debate|discuss|discourse",
"chat|talk","org|coord","poll","test","private"
team: "all|","tech","dev","board","fundraising",...
geo: "us","fl.us","ca.us",...
domain: "lists.theosdf.org"
OR is there a service we can use to host our lists that is also easy
to manage?
Google Groups would probably be technically an option, but only for
lists where the public can't post
(<http://ejohn.org/blog/google-groups-is-dead>). Using Google
infrastructure would make me feel uncomfortable, though. We should only
consider that as a last resort option, I think.
zeto
