Hi, at Debconf9, there was a BoF about the debian-devel list and how we could possibly make it more attractive.
At first some small research was presented on what other projects/distributions (mostly Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenSUSE and GNOME) are doing, the slides are here: https://penta.debconf.org/dc9_schedule/attachments/119_debian-devel.pdf At the end some possible changes were proposed: * Defining On-Topicness more sharply, e.g. * Packaging Issues which pertain to more than one package * Non-packaging Development of Debian * Reconsider CCs * Maybe split off Packaging questions/issues to a new -packaging list? * Maybe split off WNPP Traffic to a new -wnpp list? The first (redefining on-topicness) and third (split off packaging questions) points did not meet a lot of discussion (maybe somebody on this list has some input?), however the second (recondider CCs) and last (split off wnpp traffic) had some. Regarding CCs, it was hightlighted that the current list conduct explicitely says (since a short while ago) people should refrain from complaining about CCs on-list and do this privately. Further discussion made clear that most of the people present might consider getting CCed a small nuisance, but consider discussions about this much more disrupting. Furthermore, some people actually like being CCed on things, though maybe more to attract their attention to threads they would otherwise not read (and not as direct replies to them). The other discussed item was about ITPs. It turned out that roughly 20% of the debian-devel list traffic are ITPs and discussions thereof. While it is clear that ITPs should get reviewed, maybe not all of them have to be copied to -devel. It was suggested that for mass-filings (sometimes people file the ITP for a dozen perl libraries needed as Build-Depends/Depends for a package in one go), something less-intrusive could be used, maybe perhaps a summary posting. Another option is that specific teams like the perl or the games teams review ITPs in their field, while only generic ITPs get copied to -devel. Another important discussion was about dealing with big and repetetive threads. Most people seemed to agree that those threads are a problem and it was suggested to mail the involved people privately and ask them to reconsider mailing the same arguments multiple times. If I misrepresented something or forgot anything, please correct me. cheers, Michael -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
