[swift-evolution] [Discussion] mailing list alternative

[Xiaodi Wu]

No, as you define it, they're not mutually exclusive. But maintaining the
option to reply to a thread at an indeterminate point in the future when
you finally get around to reading _is_ essentially mutually exclusive to
not storing a copy of every email sent to the mailing list on your email
account somewhere.


On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 18:04 Daniel Duan <daniel at duan.org> wrote:

> On Feb 6, 2017, at 3:43 PM, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Agree strongly.
>
> It is true, however, that a major pain point of the mailing list format is
> that it is not apparent how to join an ongoing thread unless you are
> already subscribed to the list. Thus, an occasional contributor must choose
> between subscribing and setting up dedicated filters for Swift mailing
> lists or be content only to initiate new conversations. If we could only
> overcome that issue, it'd be a huge step forward.
>
>
> Subscribing and only-occasionally reading/sending is not mutually
> exclusive though. One only needs to filter emails from a list to a folder.
> Most email provider/client combos handle this nicely. Once subscribed, one
> can retroactively participate any thread. As for threads pre-subscription,
> I don’t mind starting a new thread (note this happens in forums for other
> reasons, too).
>
> (I can see an O’Rly book titled “Advanced Mailing List” in my mind right
> now 😅).
>
> On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 17:24 Daniel Duan via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
> On Feb 6, 2017, at 3:02 PM, Chris Hanson via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
> On Feb 2, 2017, at 2:24 PM, James Berry via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
>
> Speaking for myself only, discourse seems to give me little of value,
> while it would plaster emails with html-laden buttons, etc, thus making my
> favored experience worse than it is today. I’m fairly happy with using a
> gmail account and server-side filters to file my swift-evolution mails into
> a mailbox that I can then read on or offline with the threaded email client
> of my choice.
>
>
> This is my feeling as well. I also looked at the so-called “native app”
> for Discourse and it looked like just a wrapper around the web site. It
> wasn’t nearly the level of experience that I get from a high quality mail
> client like Mail.app or GMail.
>
> I would be all for a forum-like web interface to the mailing list for
> people who find mailing lists somehow lacking or who have difficulty
> configuring filters. However, I would be opposed in the strongest possible
> terms to anything that makes the mailing list interface any sort of
> second-class citizen, which is definitely what it appears switching to
> something like Discourse would do.
>
>
> With regard to threading:
>
> I’d encourage those who want web forums to give Mail.app a try. It does a
> remarkable job of keeping emails threaded. (incidentally, I’ve tried a few
> 3rd party email clients, the usual suspects with both iOS and macOS
> support, and find them *worse* at handling mailing list style email
> chains). There’s even more flexibility in the reading experience with
> things like Mutt where everything is customizable.
>
> Overall, I feel like the maturity of email tooling is not emphasized
> enough here.
>
>   -- Chris
>   -- who would also be opposed to using something like HipChat/Slack over
> IRC
>
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