On 1/3/07, Karoly Negyesi <karoly@negyesi.net> wrote:

Apparently it is more important to write mails that make people feel
welcome here than to develop and I am actually advised not to read the
list or at least parts of it.

It is important (not more important, just important) to welcome and encourage
new comers. Correcting their mistakes in a non-confrontational, non-frictional
way would most likely cause us to gain one more developer, as well as a better
sense of community as a whole, not to mention the community reputation.

So, I unsubscribe now and stuck to places where actual development
happens: the issue queue and the channel. Yesterday a totally new guy
proposed an interesting idea on #drupal and in private and today the patch
is submitted. I like this.

Karoly, IRC is a valuable collaboration tool, but not for everybody. Others, including
myself, find the "everyone talking to everyone" distracting, and just aggravates
the ADD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder )
factor.

Moreover, IRC is transient. One cannot go back and check what has been discussed,
or what drawbacks a certain approach has, ..etc..

Dries has repeatedly stated that IRC is not an official communication channel because
of the above reasons. We've also seen some "surprise" decisions for the rest of the
community when a small group discusses/decides on IRC and then things are implemented
without proper notification to the rest of the community.

So, by all means, use it for collaboration and whatever you find useful, but don't
make it the sole conduit for everyone else.