Re: [Rails-devel] Interesting BGG thread with Rails users

[brett l. <bre...@gm...>]

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Jim Black <ji...@ko...> wrote:
>
> Brett wrote:
>> Do you think it would be helpful to add a rails-users mailing list to give people a place to discuss more user-centric topics?
>
> And, Stefan wrote:
>> I believe that  a split into two lists would be really helpful, as I
>> sometimes  avoid the devel list for java specific stuff to avoid
>> scare off those from the devel list who are ("only") interested in
>> 18xx stuff (like rule questions and get feedback on the state of bugs).
>> Maybe even keep the current mailing list for that reason and add
>> a new one like devel-internal, devel-implementation or devel-java?
>
> I think Stefan's idea is a good one- a smaller list for developers/code-contributors /only/.
>
> This list could stay for more community discussion, etc.
>
> I think your team should keep encouraging that any bug reports should be filed as incidents, not freely reported to the list.  I fear that bugs that get reported to the list, but not filed as incidents, have three problems:  unnecessary noise on the list; the developers understandably inevitably lose track of specific list discussions or informal commitments, and thirdly; they're just not fixed as promptly as a result (or tracked as easily).
>
> Finally, though, I have to say that /nothing/ we do here would turn this particular list into a representative "Rails user community" forum.   This is just too technical of a group, imho- when I've asked that simple config options be defaults, everyone here was comfortable with launching separate versions of rails and/or editing my.properties, etc- I don't think that's remotely representative of the majority of rails users.  Rather, I think the rails users /on this list/ are much more technical than the average rails user from the geek, and the discussions here represent your more technical users and advocates.
>
> So, separate Rails user groups/discussions elsewhere- like on the geek- seem inevitable, and, ultimately, a good thing.
>
> best,
>  - jim
>

I agree.  The goal isn't to replace discussion elsewhere, but to be
inclusive and provide an "official" place that exists alongside the
informal discussions that happen elsewhere.

We've had the space for the more technical users for a while now, but
now that the project seems to have gained wider adoption, it's
probably time that we expanded our scope to allow the less technical
users to become a part of the discussion, too.


----Brett