Inactive mailing lists

Thu Nov 30 08:26:07 GMT 2023

Personally I vote for migration of mailing lists to Discuss. It has a modern WebUI with 0Auth for those who is unfamiliar with mailing lists, so it will alove to engage more new people + mailing list mode who prefer them.

> 27 квіт. 2023 р. о 22:42 Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss <joseph at kde.org> написав(ла):
> 
> 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
> 
> -- 
> Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss
> KDE Internal Communications & KDE Eco Community Manager
> OpenPGP: 8FC5 4178 DC44 AD55 08E7 DF57 453E 5746 59A6 C06F
> Matrix: @joseph:kde.org
> 
> Generally available Monday-Thursday from 10-16h CET/CEST. Outside of these times it may take a little longer for me to respond.
> 
> KDE Eco: Building Energy-Efficient Free Software!
> Website: https://eco.kde.org
> Mastodon: @be4foss at floss.social
> 