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

From: Michael G Schwern <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:33:31 -0700

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/