Hi Alex, I have the same experience about Slack: it's great for quick discussions and help, but it's not "stored", so it's not a reusable resource (more one shot). The purpose of the mailing list (dev or user or ...) is to be public, archive, searchable.
I think Apache Arrow is a good example of the user/dev mailing list usage. As said before: - dev mailing list is used by contributor/committer to discuss Arrow internals/roadmap. Also "integrators" can ask questions here. - user mailing list is used to get GitHub Discussion and Q&A That was also part of the proposal: also "bridge" the GitHub Discussions with the user mailing list. As we have more and more users on Polaris, as part of our "smooth onboarding" effort, I just wanted to start the discussion, at least to have it in mind, and consider later. Regards JB On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 2:27 PM Alexandre Dutra <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm a bit late to the party, sorry, but wanted to say that I support > the proposal for a user mailing list. > > On the Slack vs ML topic: I know this is highly subjective, but I > personally have way too many Slack workspaces and I find it difficult > to keep track of what's happening in all of them, often missing > important updates. Mailing lists, OTOH, allow me to consolidate all > messages into a single inbox, facilitating triage and filtering. > Combined with Gmail's "snooze" feature, this workflow is the best I've > ever had. > > On the distinction between user and developer mailing lists: this > distinction is common in other Apache communities. Generally, user > lists focus on configuration and deployment questions, while developer > lists delve into code-related discussions. While some overlap is > inevitable, it's not a significant concern imho. > > Furthermore, the Apache philosophy of "if it didn't happen on the ML > it never happened" highlights the importance of mailing lists for > official communications, making Slack more suitable for informal > discussions or one-on-one interactions. > > Anyways, just my 2 cents. > > Alex > > On Sat, Sep 27, 2025 at 6:12 AM Jean-Baptiste Onofré <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > Hi folks, > > > > I see your point. The idea is more to focus on discussions purposes. > > Everything about "code" (including I create my own metastore, etc) can > > go in dev. > > The user should be more for questions/help on the polaris default > > core. Concretely, it's the questions we have today on Slack (like, how > > to use polaris cli, what's the purpose of this configuration, etc). > > It would be a way to directly find questions and answers, as a "user > > resources". > > > > But ok fair, we will see later about the user list. For now, it's up > > to the contributor and user to create their own filters in their mail > > client to "classify" the discussions (else, they will have a lot of > > noise of with "our" pure dev discussions :)). > > > > Regards > > JB > > > > On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 10:22 PM Eric Maynard <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > > I share this concern — further, it’s not entirely clear to me what the > > > distinction between a user and a dev is. > > > > > > Namely, we’ve had many discussions in this mailing list about extension > > > points within Polaris. It could be said that in many cases, users are not > > > expected to use the service completely out of the box but rather to do > > > some > > > “development” to suit their needs. > > > > > > If I’m implementing my own metastore or building an integration with my > > > IdP, am I a user or a dev? Which mailing list can best address my > > > question? > > > > > > If we do create a new mailing list, I think we’ll need to consider what > > > exactly the use of each list should be. > > > > > > —EM > > > > > > On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 1:13 PM Yufei Gu <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > Hi JB, > > > > > > > > Thanks for bringing this up. It’s a good problem to have as the > > > > community > > > > grows :-)! > > > > > > > > My only concern is that the set of people who can answer most questions > > > > are > > > > mainly on the dev list today. Splitting into two lists might risk some > > > > fragmentation, duplicated answers, and less participation overall. Right > > > > now Slack already works well for quick user questions, and we also have > > > > GitHub Discussions as another channel. Maybe once the community grows > > > > larger, it would make sense to revisit the idea of a dedicated user > > > > list. > > > > Just my two cents. > > > > > > > > > > > > Yufei > > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 12:15 PM Dmitri Bourlatchkov <[email protected]> > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hi JB, > > > > > > > > > > Adding a users mailing list would be good from my POV. I imagine we > > > > > could > > > > > leave slack for more informal user-to-user discussions, while treating > > > > the > > > > > users ML as a means for requesting information from Polaris > > > > > developers / > > > > > maintainers. > > > > > > > > > > I imagine if something new or unusual but affecting many users were to > > > > come > > > > > up in slack, it would not be unreasonable to move such a conversation > > > > > to > > > > > the users ML so that responses and advice would be archived for future > > > > > reference. > > > > > > > > > > That said, I see some overlap with GH discussions, so I wonder if we > > > > > may > > > > > want to make GH discussion read-only if we enable the new ML (in > > > > > order to > > > > > direct all questions to one system). > > > > > > > > > > My personal preference is with users ML over GH discussions. > > > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > Dmitri. > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM Jean-Baptiste Onofré > > > > > <[email protected]> > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > > > > > > > It’s great to see more and more users asking questions on Slack. > > > > > > To give a voice to anyone and a way to ask questions, I wonder if we > > > > > should > > > > > > not create a user mailing list. > > > > > > Dev will be used to discuss technical details, changes, proposals, > > > > > > decisions (as we do today). User will be dedicated to users about > > > > > > questions, help requests, etc. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thoughts ? > > > > > > > > > > > > Regards > > > > > > JB > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
