[documentation] Proposal to deprecate the docs mailing list

[Heather]

Okey, I am strongly in favor of working with the team on a wiki page to focus on, for example, a review of the getting started guide. Being able to keep a list, suggest reordering, etc, through wiki its superior. 

Also, having the mailing list, when there is so much productive activity on g.d.o feels a bit like a back channel to me, which goes counter to the transparent open policies of Drupal. 

But... Here I am, I have access through my phone and I'm responding via email. That's the irony. Wish we could have it both ways. Hmm.. Wish I could browse g.d.o on my phone, but that's another problem!

Can we sort of turn on wiki pages in the group, and see how it goes? Hey if you used g.d.o you could make a poll. Heh. 

- Heather


-----Original Message-----
From: Addison Berry <drupal at rocktreesky.com>

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:42:02 
To: <documentation at drupal.org>
Subject: [documentation] Proposal to deprecate the docs mailing list


> So this is an issue that has been kicking around in my head for a  
> while. It was raised briefly earlier this year (http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/2008-March/thread.html#5900 
> ) on the list and it was decided to stick with the mailing list. I  
> raised it again today during our IRC meeting to get a general pulse.  
> So, I'm going to lay it all out and see what the larger team thinks.
>
> I am proposing that we deprecate the documentation mailing list and  
> use groups.drupal.org for our discussions instead. In order to not  
> have conversations happening in two places we need to have one  
> definitive "discussion" venue. Due to this, the current docs group  
> is "read-only." To make it read-only we have to limit who can  
> actually become a member of the group. Limiting membership like this  
> severely hampers our use of all the tools that g.d.o could offer us.
>
> If we allowed membership and free posting on the g.d.o group, we  
> would:
> - Still have email notifications of all discussions.
> - Be able to use wiki posts to collaborate on one living document  
> rather than having to attach separate iterations to an issue in the  
> queue.
> - Read threads all on one page rather than have to page through the  
> mailman archive.
> - Organize and categorize discussions to make it easier to find  
> areas of interest.
> - Replying to old threads that you didn't actually receive in email  
> is clear and straightforward - just leave a new comment. (How to  
> respond to archived mail threads is not an apparent thing.)
>
> The only advantage that the mailing list provides that the group  
> does not, is the ability to reply to a thread directly from your  
> email. I feel that losing this feature is worth the advantages we  
> would gain by shifting to g.d.o. I feel that this is true for  
> actually collaborating as a team and to make it easier for new users  
> to join in.
>
> I am posting this to the mailing list as well as posting on g.d.o  
> with comments turned on. This is one conversation that I'd like to  
> see discussed wherever folks feel most comfortable.



- Addi (add1sun)
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