[SeasonOfDocs] Email list research

Thu Aug 15 05:05:30 PDT 2019

I've been playing around with GitHub discussions on the project.

Even though I am not in the GitHub team, I could try a few things. I reckon
only those on the team or admins have the power to 'delete'.

On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 7:29 AM Jo Cook <jo.k.cook at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs
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