Mailing list-s division
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The following talk is obsolete. Option 3 was in fact chosen.
There is a problem with the definition of the mainlist and the interlist. Right now :
- The main list is both used for internal english matters AND integrated wikipedia matters
- The inter list was initially set up to take care of matters dealing with creating and organising inter wiki
A side effect of 1) is that some en.wiki editors tend to generalize typical english matters to the rest of the wikipedias.
A side effect of 1) is that all inter that want to be involved in the decision process have to register the main list. Thus making the inter list useless.
A side effect of 2) is that new inter comers tend to believe they can post messages to the inter list, and trust the information there is complete. Both points being clearly untrue (especially since we sometimes forget to double post, on one, or on the other list)
Other side effects are multiple cross posting between the two lists, implying
- additional posting time (specially when we forget the cc)
- additional reading time to check the message is the same
- additional time for deletion
- cluttering of the mail box
- incomplete information for those who are not registered at both lists
Ideally, I think there should be:
- A main list, dealing with integrated issues (I don't know the best word to say that, I don't want to mean integration, I want to say issues important to the enlarged community)
- Plenty of language-specific lists, among which the english list, to deal with naming conventions and majuscule/minuscule typo conventions. Lists only to be set up if there is a need and a demand of course.
In concrete terms, for example
- Option1: either a new list (a "metalist") is created, and the mainlist deals with english matters (the inconvenience of that option will be that most people would continue nevertheless to post everything at the main list)
- Option2: the interlist really becomes the integrated list and the mainlist stays only for en.issues (that option could maybe be accompanied by an automatic registering process for english not yet on the interlist; but again, I fear lazyness will prevent this process, and posting will stay on the main list anyway; also, this might become a diplomatic issue to some)
- Option3: the main list becomes the main list (metalist), and a new en.list is created for english issues (is that possible that all users of the main list are automatically registered to that en.list, and an automatic message send for easy unsuscribing for those not interested to stay on it? it would make the switching process less labourious...)
The 3rd process could be nearly transparent for english users, as most of the time, people reply to messages, so it won't change habits much. They will be registered to two lists, but ain't that the case of many already ? This option would help avoiding cross posting and information loss. It would save time. It would avoid mailbox cluttering. It will also make clearer that setting up an integrated encyclopedia is a one of the goals; not helping side projects to develop.
I think it important that somehow, one day, this mailing list issues are dealt with.
user:Anthere wrote in small part:
>Option3: the main list becomes the main list (metalist), >and a new en.list is created for english issues
IMO, Anthere is absolutely right, and the above quoted portion is the absolutely rightest bit. -- Toby
- yeah, I know. I have a lot of trouble making things short…
- I vote for the above proposal, too. Just an addition to 2): the language specific lists are also to deal with edit wars and all the social stuff on this specific wikipedia. --Elian
Hi list! To avoid confusion in cross-posting, forgetting about that, splitted discussions among 3 different mailing lists, breading new lists, I've got a proposition:
Let's make _only one_ mailing list called of course wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org
Every message to be sent would be tagged by supplying the header [Wikitech-l] and/or [Intlwiki-l] or other in the first line of the post or in the subject field.
Daemon at the mailing list server would decide (is it possible?) to who sent the fresh post it has just received. It would be based on information which every subscriber would enter during subscription process, like marking check-boxes
"Please deliver me technical issues", that is current [Wikitech-l]
"Please inform me about international issues", that is [Intlwiki-l]
"Please inform me about xx language Wikipedia issues", that is eg. [xxwiki-l]
You might ask, what to do with those who forget to enter desired [...] tags (especially unexperienced users will do this permanently).
One could be asked during subscription process on what Wikipedia he/she spends the most of his/her time.
Then the daemon would sent his/her untagged message like it was sent with respective tag (as it would be the most probable target).
What to do when you forget to put one more extra tag?
Sent a blank message with only one line:
repost-last [tag1] [tag2] etc. Daemon would send to the respective remaining subscribers - that way only once to every address! (developers, does it sound too stupid?).
The remaining question is: how can I be informed about important issues when I'm not subscribed to receive them? (Sounds like more general question of communication issues, eh?)
Maybe through subscribing to messages containing selected words or regexs + tagging messages with those keywords like [Spanish], [Main_Page], [unification] etc. Don't know.
But definitely the proposed solution would be a step to make the process of communication less upsetting for multi-subscribers and towards unification of Wikipedias.
User:Youandme
- That sounds really confusing to me. --Brion VIBBER 01:29 Oct 24, 2002 (UTC)