Re: gnustep.org domain

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 18.07.2013 um 10:32 schrieb Richard Frith-Macdonald:
>>> 
>>> ..., why splitting up the available channels further and having the burden 
>>> to maintain this infrastructure too? IMHO this is a waste of effort.
>>> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnustep
>> 
>> +1
>> 
>> 
>> For me, communication is divided clearly in:
>> 1) email
>> 2) IRC
>> which I both can access through SeaMonkey and, in theory, with two (aging) 
>> gnustep programs.
>> For person-to-person communication there is the horribly proprietary Skype 
>> which ends up being effective because it works and it is used, even if it 
>> means that usually I have a second laptop just to use that crap ;)
> 
> I kind of agree ... when I'm at the computer I'm working on something 
> (whether it's paid work or GNUstep work) and concentrating on what I'm doing. 
>  That means, for me, that instant messaging and similar social media tools 
> are horrible distractions which cause me to lose track of what I'm doing, so 
> I always have them turned off.

++10.

> Anything that can wait, I do on email. If it can't wait (or is just too 
> complicated or unclear to do in email), then text chat is far too slow for me 
> and I need speech... which in practice means phone or skype.
> 
> That being said, if there's a good free software voip system we could use for 
> conferencing and voice chat, I'd like that.

I also almost agree, except of the role of "can't wait" in OSS. In my 
experience in OSS projects there is almost never a situation that can't wait. 
It is different for paid projects where you need to ask your customer for 
clarifications of specifications (or more time&money :) before you can continue.

So for me e-mail and a bug tracker is completely sufficient and I don't even 
use Skype or similar tools. Well, a forum *may* be good and is a better archive 
than e-mail but as others have pointed out it must be actively used or it is 
exhibiting "death" (a fate I have seen for several fora).

And citing "why splitting up the available channels further" from this 
discussion above, I would even suggest to reduce the mailing lists to a single 
one - sharing developers, users, testers, open discussions etc. since I 
recently learned that there are other gnustep lists with may transport 
important information that is not available elsewhere. I.e. GNUstep discussions 
are already fragmented.

Just my 2 ct,
Nikolaus