Once again I would like to bring up the idea of starting a forum using Discourse. In particular, I would like to highlight some of the features Discourse offers that are relevant to the mailing list, for those concerned about making the switch:
- Supports replying to conversations and PMs via email out of the box - Can be configured to allow starting conversations and private messages via email - Support SSO via numerous providers, so no need to create a separate account Discourse inherits all of the functionality of the mailing list (some assembly required), and on top of that offers all the modern features you would expect from a forum. It's free and it's open source. The Discourse team will even offer free hosting and setup for open source projects like Groovy. Many other projects like Kotlin utilize this system. As for the problem of having "too many channels to manage" it would be feasible to set up the forums to alert mailing list users that a new topic has been started. This would help bridge the gap between the two platforms. Many community members I have talked to would like a forum. If you agree, please make your voice heard by responding. There is one problem left to tackle with a forum, and that is Apache policy. According to Paul King, "apache mandates the use of their own mailing lists for all official discussions" although having a forum is of course allowed. To have an official forum, we'd need "Apache approval" which presents "significant obstacles." In my mind, this makes the path forward obvious: we need a public forum, but it NEEDS support from higher-ups on the Groovy team as well. It needs to be advertised and linked to from the groovy site and things of that nature. It should be pushed as much as possible. Otherwise, it seems nearly pointless. Once again I think this can only happen with a large amount of support from the community, so please chime in.
