Andrew Dunstan wrote:
Being slightly more abstract, we are grappling with a couple of different kinds of objects here: discussions and decisions. The mailing list is a very good way of having a discussion, and a wiki is IMNSHO a poor substitute. Ditto, bulletin board, web forum, blog ..... The reason is simply that with a mailing list all you need is a subscription to get the info delivered to you in a medium everybody uses. It's push, not pull, and that's very appealing. Any other mechanism requires the user to seek the location of the discussion actively to some degree. Conversely, the very unstructured nature of the mailing list(s) makes them a poor medium for capturing decisions. That's why some of us have advocated use of a tracker to capture decisions about development directions, because the TODO list doesn't seem appropriate. But an open wiki would be a horrible substitute for the TODO list - it would turn it from a list that reflects at least some discussion and consensus into a mere wish list of no authority whatsoever. IOW, it is the exact opposite of the direction I believe we should be headed.
I agree pretty much. However I disagree that a wiki is not useful to summarize discussion from the mailinglist. All that it needs is people that are humble and do not push their own agendas. If necessary they should discuss their summaries with members of both/all sides of a given discussion and with members of the core group.
regards, Lukas ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
