Hi, I am new to this list and have been following this thread. I don't know whether I missed this. But loomio is a free software for collaborative decision making processes and its a free software. Do check it out. It's easy to keep track.
On January 18, 2015 9:57:44 PM GMT+05:30, Christopher <ctubb...@apache.org> wrote: >On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 7:34 AM, Benedikt Ritter <brit...@apache.org> >wrote: >[snip] > >> Now I'm curious: Does anybody here really like the use of mailing >lists? Or >> do we all simply go through the struggle of setting up filters etc. >just >> because this is the way it has always been? >> >> >I absolutely loathe mailing lists: > >1. They *feel* like spam (Google often incorrectly identifies ASF >mailing >list activity as spam). >2. They are difficult to parse (visually) and triage/categorize >(subject >line conventions help to some degree). >3. They are often full of pages and pages of text, which could be more >easily conveyed by a more succinct means, with the best option to >provide a >link to an external resource (which creates a slight burden on the >composer). >4. Long conversations often get forked, and are difficult to follow >(esp. >in tools like GMail which doesn't thread conversations natively). Even >when >not forked, they can be difficult to determine whom one is responding >to >when replies are interspersed. >5. Outages and late-subscribers can get messages at different times, >and >dealing with backlog is not so easy. >6. The archives are profoundly difficult to navigate and reference >(though, >that's specific to ASF archives, not necessarily generally true). >7. Filters are useful, but have limited ability to address all the >issues. >8. Client-side identity management is a pain, when you have multiple >email >addresses for different purposes, and the mailing lists expose you to >spam. >9. Replying is inefficient and ugly, with different community >conventions >(top-posting, bottom-posting, inline-posting) on mailing lists. >10. Message sizes when replying is often inefficient. Most people quote >the >entire previous message, including any previously quoted messages, >indenting and wrapping, sending and storing redundant bits which are >difficult to read anyway. >11. Validating authenticity is a problem. GPG is great, but most email >users use web-based email nowadays, and there is limited-to-zero >browser >support for adding digital signatures to messages. >12. HTML is bulky, but there's limited other options for >pretty-printing >messages (email clients don't often... or ever... support markdown or >asciidoc or similar markup). > >That said, I don't think it's that they are used "just because this is >the >way it has always been". There's plenty of important (and useful) >reasons >why we use them. Still, I do think it's an archaic and outdated system, >which could be pleasantly replaced with an alternative. Aside from the >fact >that some people still prefer the mailing lists (my opinion may be in >the >minority), the problem seems to be that there is no simple replacement >system which can be substituted. > >Of the mass communication forums out there, I think email and message >boards had some good bits, but the modern social network (G+, FB, etc.) >seems to have a reasonable hybrid approach to mass conversations, which >allows threaded conversations, direct linking to topics, easily linked >external resources (with preview), integration with other tools >(email/SMS-to-post/reply), easily linking to an individual to whom one >is >replying, easily searched and categorized (hashtags), low burden to >subscribe/unsubscribe, better identity management, integrated blogging, >built-in individual and group chat, two-factor authentication, etc., >etc., >etc. > >While email may still have its pros, I *do* think it is archaic and >lacking >features which inhibit productivity. I think there are better >solutions, >and it'd be great if we had the resources to think about them and >experiment with implementing them for the ASF. > >-- >Christopher L Tubbs II >http://gravatar.com/ctubbsii -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
