Re: OT: mail-based interfaces and web-based interfaces (Re: Extract

From: Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 26, 2012, 02:33 UTC
Message-ID: <5010AC7B.6020805@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: <20120725234838.GA16020@dcvr.yhbt.net>

On 2012.7.25 4:48 PM, Eric Wong wrote:

> We need to use something.  Right now our choice of mailer is the best
> choice for _existing_ contributors.

I believe this entire discussion can be reduced to that right there.

If your process is optimized for existing contributors, it will work well for existing contributors, who will want to optimize it for themselves. Repeat. If the main way you evaluate your process is asking "is this more convenient for me" then you're probably in that spiral.

This creates a process very well tuned to the existing contributors, and its very convenient for them. But the consequence is it becomes more and more work for a new contributor to join.

Before talking about anything else, the existing contributors have to ask themselves a simple question: Do we care about getting new contributors?

The answer can be "no" ("yes, but not if I'm inconvenienced" is a no). Maybe you're happy with the people you've got. But there's no point in getting into detail until that's settled.

That's mostly a rhetorical question. I want to wrap up the meta-discussion and focus on getting patches in.

-- 
100. Claymore mines are not filled with yummy candy, and it is wrong
     to tell new soldiers that they are.
    -- The 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The U.S. Army
           http://skippyslist.com/list/