Inactive mailing lists

[Albert Astals Cid]

El divendres, 28 d’abril de 2023, a les 0:10:25 (CEST), Nicolas Fella va 
escriure:
> Am 27.04.23 um 23:42 schrieb Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss:
> > Cross-posting to the relevant mailing lists.
> > 
> > To discuss, please answer to kde-community at kde.org.
> > 
> > tl;dr There are several inactive or unused lists of the 181 mailing
> > lists at KDE. What do we want to do with them?
> > 
> > This is a post about inactive or unused mailing lists. For a general
> > discussion about (active) mailing lists at KDE, please start a new
> > thread or wait until I address that, likely in the very near future.
> > 
> > _Inactive Mailing Lists_
> > 
> > For a better understanding of what works and what needs improvement in
> > KDE's internal communications, I started by looking at the 181 mailing
> > lists publicly listed at:
> > 
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/
> > 
> > Here I see 51 mailing lists which might be considered inactive, some
> > of which were never used at all. There may be more to add to this upon
> > further inspection, but these seem like a good place to start.
> > 
> > By inactive I mean there has been very low or no activity in the past
> > 2-3 years at least, and for most lists the last post was 4+ years ago.
> > For several of these lists, there are long gaps in activity, often
> > with no community responses to the most recent posts.
> > 
> > The 51 mailing lists are included at the end of this email.
> > 
> > Importantly, I know a list with infrequent activity is *not* the same
> > as a list that has no activity. Some communities do not need regular
> > communication for that community to be active. If you see your
> > community's mailing list here and think it is a mistake, please let me
> > know! My apologies in advance if this is the case.
> > 
> > Crucially, do not interpret an inactive mailing list to mean a project
> > is inactive. It only means the mailing list is not a frequently used
> > channel of communication. There are many other channels for community
> > discussion (e.g., Matrix, Discuss, etc.).
> > 
> > _Some Questions To The KDE Community_
> > 
> >  * What do we want to do with inactive or unused mailing lists?
> > 
> >  * Is there a policy for retiring inactive lists? I didn't see
> > anything at the Community Wiki. [1]
> > 
> >  * Does KDE have internal infrastructure to archive mailing lists for
> > posterity? I see kwrite-devel [2] archived old posts at the "Mailing
> > list ARChives" [3].
> > 
> >  * Do we want to nudge traffic from low activity mailing lists to
> > somewhere with generally higher activity (specifically, I am thinking
> > Discuss)? I can imagine being in a more active online space could
> > increase general participation for otherwise low activity groups.
> > 
> > _Inactive Lists: To Close Or Not To Close_
> > 
> > I am sure there are reasons both for and against closing mailing
> > lists. Here are just some reasons I can think of to close inactive ones:
> > 
> >  * The more communication channels there are, the more fractured KDE's
> > communication is.
> > 
> >  * It may not be obvious to new (or even old) contributors that a list
> > is no longer in use, resulting in wasted energy signing up for an
> > inactive one.
> > 
> >  * Trying to engage with an inactive list may reduce motivation for
> > futher contributions from members, especially when posts go unanswered.
> > 
> >  * Moving some communities to more lively platforms may increase their
> > overall activity.
> > 
> >  * There could be a slight efficiency/ecological benefit for KDE's
> > server infrastructure by removing or deactivating unused services.
> > 
> > Pleae keep in mind: I am not judging the value of any particular group
> > by pointing out low activity, or arguing we need to close any specific
> > list. If there is a reason -- any reason at all -- to keep a list
> > open, then let's keep it open! I myself like mailing lists for various
> > forms of communication (announcements, long-form discussion,
> > information which I want to archive locally for future reference, etc.).
> > 
> > If I made any mistakes in my summary here, please let me know. It is a
> > challenge to go through 181 lists and not make any errors, though I
> > tried my best not to.
> > 
> > I look forward to reading your thoughts and suggestions!
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Joseph
> > 
> > [1] https://community.kde.org/Infrastructure/Mailing-Lists
> > [2] https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kwrite-devel
> > [3] https://marc.info/
> > 
> > # Overview
> > 
> > Of the 181 mailing lists listed publicly, I found the following:
> > 
> >  * 12 are lists that have never been used and 1 was already closed
> >  * 27 are potentially-inactive general lists
> >  * 11 are potentially-inactive language or country-specific lists
> > 
> > # Unused / Closed Mailing Lists [13 Lists]
> > 
> > ## Never Used [12 lists] ("No messages have been posted to this list
> > yet, so the archives are currently empty.")
> > 
> >  * Calligra-author: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-author
> >  * Cantor-bugs: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/cantor-bugs
> >  * Gcompris-espanol:
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/gcompris-espanol
> >  * Kde-dashboard: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-dashboard
> >  * kde-games-bugs: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-games-bugs
> >  * Kde-i18n-it: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-i18n-it
> >  * Kde-l10n-my: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-l10n-my
> >  * Kde-l10n-sw: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-l10n-sw
> >  * KDE-Look: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-look
> >  * Kde-partnership: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-partnership
> >  * Kdepim-builds: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kdepim-builds
> >  * neon-bugs: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/neon-bugs
> > 
> > ## Officially Closed [1 list]
> > 
> >  * kde-nonlinux: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-nonlinux
> > 
> > # Inactive General Lists [27 lists]
> > 
> > ## Currently Inactive With Almost No Previous Activity [5 lists]
> > 
> >  * kde-artists: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-artists
> >  * Heaptrack: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/heaptrack
> >  * CuteHMI: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/cutehmi
> >  * Khtml-cvs: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/khtml-cvs
> >  * Cki-attendees: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/cki-attendees
> > 
> > ## Currently Inactive With Low Previous Activity [2 lists]
> > 
> >  * Snorenotify: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/snorenotify
> >  * KXStitch: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kxstitch
> > 
> > ## Currently Inactive But Previously Active [16 lists]
> > 
> >  * Choquk-devel: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/choqok-devel
> >  * Kde-embedded: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-embedded
> >  * Kde-buildsystem: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-buildsystem
> >  * WikiToLearn: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitolearn
> >  * Marble-commits: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/marble-commits
> >  * Ksecretservice-devel:
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/ksecretservice-devel
> >  * KDE-Telepathy: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-telepathy
> >  * Kde-speech: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-speech
> >  * Kexi: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kexi
> >  * Enterprise: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/enterprise
> >  * Marble: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/marble
> >  * kde-women: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-women
> >  * kde-usa: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usa
> >  * kopete-devel: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kopete-devel
> >  * Kde-scm-interest:
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-scm-interest
> >  * Kexi-devel: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kexi-devel
> > 
> > ## No Activity In 7+ Years [4 lists]
> > 
> >  * SymbolEditor: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/symboleditor
> >  * Gcompris-portugues:
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/gcompris-portugues
> >  * kdelibs-bugs: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kdelibs-bugs
> >  * QmlWeb: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/qmlweb
> > 
> > # Inactive Language/Country-Specific Mailing Lists [11 lists]
> > 
> > ## Currently Inactive With Almost No Previous Activity [2 lists]
> > 
> >  * Kde-i18n-eu: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-i18n-eu
> >  * Kde-edu-pt_br: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-edu-pt_br
> > 
> > ## Currently Inactive But Previously Active [5 lists]
> > 
> >  * Kde-i18n-uk: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-i18n-uk
> >  * KDE-india: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-india
> >  * Kde-l10n-in: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-l10n-in
> >  * Kde-latam: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-latam
> >  * Kde-l10n-kn: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-l10n-kn
> > 
> > ## No Activity In 7+ Years [3 lists]
> > 
> >  * Kde-el: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-el
> >  * kde-mexico: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-mexico
> >  * Kde-l10n-si: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-l10n-si
> > 
> > ## Infrequently Active [1 list]
> > 
> >  * KDE-Italia: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-italia
> 
> Hi,
> 
> there's various foo-bugs at kde.org lists in your list. Those (sometimes)
> have a specific aspect, which is that they are the default assignee on
> bugs.kde.org for that project.
> 
> There's something funky about it though. For example
> kdelibs-bugs at kde.org is the default assignee for the frameworks-kirigami
> product, so the archive should show lots of mails from that, but doesn't.

Probably archiving was just disabled, the fact that archiving was disabled 
doesn't mean the list is inactive.

Example: kde-devel archives start in September 2020, the list was used 
probably for decades before that, just with archiving disabled.

Cheers,
  Albert

> 
> Whether this is a good use of mailing lists is of course up for debate.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Nico
> 
> PS: Evaluating how "Default Assignee" and generally automatic
> subscription to bugreports works could be a good idea. Currently the
> established way to get CC'd on bugs for a specific thing is to tell Nate
> "Please CC me for XY bugs" and then Nate does some obscure config to
> make it happen