[Qgis-user] Announce - migrate our mailing lists to Discourse

[Fernando M. Roxo da Motta]

On Thu, 4 Apr 2024 16:17:38 -0400, DancesWithCars via QGIS-User
<qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:


> I won't be making the transition.
> Bye
> 
  I am not very active in this list, but learn a lot with it.

  A migration to a web based platform that usally screw the messages
contents...   Nah.

  I will miss the list.


> 
> On Thu, Apr 4, 2024, 14:06 chris hermansen via QGIS-User <
> qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> 
> > Régis and everyone else,
> >
> > My apologies; I try not to top post but my response is more an
> > overall reaction to your announcement rather than a point by point
> > response.
> >
> > I was a member (??) over at opensource.com's Discourse instance
> > until RedHat decided to shut down support for opensource.com, so I
> > have some experience with that Discourse configuration, also plenty
> > of experience with mailing lists.  Also familiarity with the Ubuntu
> > Forums, Stack Exchange etc.
> >
> > In my experience, Discourse "out of the box" doesn't offer any net
> > benefit to its users.
> >
> > It's quite possible that people interested in, and willing to
> > invest time and effort into customizing their usage profile would
> > benefit more from Discourse than from a mailing list.  I have no
> > experience with that.
> >
> > You may be correct when you say that we will attract more new users
> > by offering them Discourse than by maintaining a mailing list.  I
> > guess the question that begs to be asked is, will those new users
> > thereby turn into contributors, or will the biggest Discourse
> > channel be "how do I install QGIS on my new Mac"?
> >
> > I suppose, perhaps wrongly, that most of us on this (and other)
> > mailing lists are here because the list provides a sense of
> > community, an opportunity to pay back by offering a bit of help, an
> > opportunity to stumble on something new and useful from time to
> > time... what else?  I'm pretty sure none of us participate in this
> > list to learn how to participate effectively in lists.  Moreover,
> > we don't really have the tools to "only pay attention to topics X,
> > Y and Z".  So all of us get to see the beginner questions, and the
> > responses, and sometimes we find ourselves in the situation of
> > starting fresh with something that, because of this broad
> > familiarity, is not a total blank.
> >
> > In contrast, in my experience, moving to Discourse, or any other
> > similar forum-type structure, allows or even encourages us to stick
> > to certain topics that we think may be of interest and avoid all
> > others.
> >
> > I would argue that we thereby cheapen and diminish our contribution
> > back to the forum, simply because we miss real opportunities to
> > help while we avoid reading certain topics; and by doing so, we
> > reduce the sense of community we get by belonging to the list.  I
> > would further argue that we run the risk of not learning many new
> > things because by streaming topics into tens or hundreds of
> > specialist channels, we inevitably miss things that might benefit
> > us.
> >
> > Finally, we have the "opportunity" to spend more of our limited time
> > learning about configuring our participation in this mechanism,
> > rather than just participating.  Your example of learning how to
> > treat Discourse like a mailing list by following the Mozilla
> > tutorial addresses this situation precisely - instead of helping a
> > person with their configuration issues, or learning more about how
> > to structure the queries used in QGIS, we are tweaking the
> > Discourse knobs and levers to get the "optimum" experience.
> >
> > I guess you can tell that I'm negative on this concept.  I don't
> > feel that the mailing list is a be-all and end-all.  But I am
> > pretty sure, again based on my experience, that the lovely
> > community we have here on qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org will not be the
> > same collection of good things once migrated to Discourse.  I do
> > hope that I am wrong!
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 7:04 AM Régis Haubourg via QGIS-User <
> > qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> >  
> >> [Message sent to all QGIS's lists. Sorry for crossposting -
> >> **please reply only in PSC list**  ]
> >> [stuff deleted]
> >>
> >>
> >> Any thought from you is more than welcome, from ranting against
> >> modernity to thanking SAC for their hard work.
> >>  
> >  And thank you, SAC, for your hard work!
> >
> > --
> > Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com
> >
> > C'est ma façon de parler.
> > _______________________________________________
> > QGIS-User mailing list
> > QGIS-User at lists.osgeo.org
> > List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
> >  








  Roxo

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Fernando M. Roxo da Motta <petro at roxo.org>              | Editor?
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