[SeasonOfDocs] Email list research

Wed Aug 14 14:29:33 PDT 2019

Hi Cameron,

I don't see the need for a GitHub username to be a showstopper, I see it as
being roughly equivalent to subscribing to a mailing list, particularly as
anyone actually wanting to contribute will need those credentials anyhow. I
was also envisaging that we'd have an open "team" for general discussions,
as well as the potential for restricted teams for different use cases if
required. I don't see this as any different to OSGeo's restricted mailing
lists for the board, conferences etc.

I agree being able to delete messages or threads is problematic, and needs
more investigation though. I have reached out to GitHub help and hope to
get some answers to our questions though. I did get a response to my
initial enquiry, so I'm optimistic we will get clarification.

Jo

On Wed, 14 Aug 2019, 12:07 Cameron Shorter, <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Ok, I just had a play around with a GitHub teams discussion page, which
> Felicity set up and Jo and I have been added to:
>
> https://github.com/orgs/thegooddocsproject/teams/website
>
> Some major concerns I have with it are:
>
> * I can delete a message I add to a discussion.
>
> * It appears I can also delete someone else's message if I had a personal
> gripe with them (probably because I have admin access). (The delete button
> is there, I didn't test it). This creates a fundamental problem for
> retaining archives.
>
> * It appears I can only contribute to conversations if I have a github
> username (and possibly only if I am a member of the group). Can someone
> other than Jo/Felicity/me contribute to the conversation? This is not going
> to work as a community support email list.
>
> I find these two issues significant and are probably show stoppers for
> selecting GitHub Team Discussions to replace an email list.
> On 14/8/19 7:28 am, Sanket Totewar wrote:
>
> *From today's call*
>
> Additional comments from Sanket: A couple of features that GitHub
> discussions have that make them a better choice are (1) the ability to watch/unwatch
> teams
> <https://help.github.com/en/articles/watching-and-unwatching-team-discussions>
> , subscribe/unsubscribe to/from discussions
> <https://help.github.com/en/articles/subscribing-to-and-unsubscribing-from-notifications>
>  and pin/unpin discussions
> <https://help.github.com/en/articles/pinning-a-team-discussion> and (2)
> it allows markdown so we get checklists, emojis, tables, etc. which greatly
> improve readability.
>
> Additional comments from Jo and Cameron: The GitHub discussions API
> <https://developer.github.com/v3/teams/discussions/> can be used to fetch
> discussions but we may need to store them in a place from time to time in a
> searchable format.
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:29 AM Sanket Totewar <sanket at totewar.com> wrote:
>
>> Sorry guys for the delay in reply.
>>
>> I have some interesting perspective from some peeps who've used Gmail
>> lists and GitHub discussions.
>>
>> Can't share their names but they have all used private repos (no public
>> ones) and have had GitHub organizations with teams in them.
>>
>> P1: GitHub discussions can go too deep if your team is spread across the
>> world so we started using them but moved to slack and then only added
>> decisions as meeting notes in Confluence.
>>
>> P2: I've tried using them but didn't like the style as it does not feel
>> real-time. So we have calls instead.
>>
>> P3: GitHub discussions might be great for open source projects but were
>> not relevant to ours as we had private meetings.
>>
>> P4: Emails are the best as it is so easy to search through them but of
>> course you need to know what you are searching for. Google does a great job
>> here.
>>
>> P5: I've not seen any open source project use GitHub team discussions.
>>
>> P6: Love GitHub Discussions. They are very helpful for international
>> teams.
>>
>> P7: GitHub discussions allow inline commenting and give easy access to
>> links in GitHub PRs in addition to the comments inside PRs, they form a
>> good package.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 8:18 PM Cameron Shorter <
>> cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Sanket, are you around and noticing emails? At our last meeting, we
>>> identified setting up an email list as our number 2 priority.
>>>
>>> Jo, you were also looking into this and had some ideas. How far did you
>>> get before heading on leave last week?
>>>
>>> How should we move forward?
>>>
>>> Cheers, Cameron
>>> On 10/8/19 8:44 am, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Sanket, did your research into email list options identify anything
>>> worth passing on?
>>>
>>> Cheers, Cameron
>>> On 1/8/19 7:32 am, Sanket Totewar wrote:
>>>
>>> Sounds good. I have meetings with my internal support teams that have
>>> used Google Groups and a bunch of developers that have explored GitHub
>>> discussions so I'll share their feedback in a few days.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 1, 2019 at 1:25 AM Jo Cook <jo.k.cook at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've been doing a little more digging into GitHub Discussions.
>>>>
>>>> Good:
>>>>
>>>> * hosted and free (at the moment)
>>>> * you can align them with organisational teams, which would mean we
>>>> could have one list for website discussion, another one for PSC etc.
>>>> * definitely searchable, but it's a little early to tell how manageable
>>>> they are going to be with a large number of messages.
>>>> * not needing any additional logins- people helping with the project
>>>> will need a github login anyway so we're not asking them to sign up to
>>>> anything extra
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bad things:
>>>> * There's also no explicit statement on archiving them, potentially
>>>> they will survive as long as the organisation does.
>>>> * They might transition to being a paid-for function at some point
>>>>
>>>> I'm not wedded to them, but it appeals to my sense of neatness to keep
>>>> everything together :-)
>>>>
>>>> Jo
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 1:32 PM Cameron Shorter <
>>>> cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 31/7/19 7:21 pm, Jo Cook wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>    -
>>>>>
>>>>>    Discussions- currently using an osgeo mailing list, requirement is
>>>>>    for hosted (let’s not maintain a server). Github discussions- not clear on
>>>>>    archiving, google groups- probably OK but how long are things archived?
>>>>>    Let’s discuss via email. ACTION: SANKET to do some research and start email
>>>>>    thread discussing requirements.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sanket, expanding on what I think requirements are:
>>>>>
>>>>> * For long term sustainability it is important to keep things as
>>>>> simple and low maintenance as possible.
>>>>>
>>>>> * We want conversations archived and searchable (by google is ok). Eg:
>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/seasonofdocs/2019-July/thread.html
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>>> Technology Demystifier
>>>>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>>>>
>>>>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> SeasonOfDocs mailing list
>>>>> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> ------------------------
>>>> http://about.me/jocook
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> SeasonOfDocs mailing list
>>>> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Cameron Shorter
>>> Technology Demystifier
>>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>>
>>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cameron Shorter
>>> Technology Demystifier
>>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>>
>>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>>>
>>>
> _______________________________________________
> SeasonOfDocs mailing listSeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.orghttps://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Technology Demystifier
> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>
> M +61 (0) 419 142 254
>
> _______________________________________________
> SeasonOfDocs mailing list
> SeasonOfDocs at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
>
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