[SeasonOfDocs] Email list research

Fri Aug 16 03:31:20 PDT 2019

Hi All,

I've created a new discussion "team" called "discuss" to attempt to
replicate a standard mailing list. I deliberately haven't invited anyone to
join it but I believe you should all be able to request access.

I think to test this properly, we may need to reduce the current level of
access that some people have, from repository/project owner down to
something with a little less privileges. Can someone volunteer to have
their access temporarily reduced please? Also can people see what happens
when they try to join the new discuss team?

I can also see that we can have a membership type called "Outside
Collaborator". Is anyone familiar with what that entails?

Thanks

Jo

On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 1:06 PM Sanket Totewar <sanket at totewar.com> wrote:

> 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
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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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