[opensource-dev] Request for clarification on mailing list guidelines

Philippe (Merov) Bossut merov at lindenlab.com
Mon Mar 22 22:12:11 PDT 2010


Hi,

Each tool has its pluses and minuses and we use a variety of them:
- Mailing list: may be the most widely used tool. The problem I see with it
is that it mixes everything: small requests, long discussions, policies,
technicalities, etc... Other FLOSS projects use a variety of lists, breaking
things in categories (Mozilla for instance). It tends to become another kind
of mess with cross posting. Yes, Gmail rocks and threaded discussions a god
send but still...
- wiki: it's one we underuse. The problem is that it needs a lot of wiki
gardening and things can simply die there with no clear resolution.
- IW meetings: we have our weekly Hippo meeting and I truly encourage folks
to come. It's my favorite comm tool personally as it's a dedicated moment
and we have full attention of everyone. Should we do more of this?
- IRC: great for informal and quick discussions but *highly* distracting. I
sometime choose not to be available so I can focus on work.
- JIRA: great for focused technical discussions on features and bugs. The
good thing is that one can manage something toward a resolution (as opposed
to wiki) and redirect to other teams, link to other issues, etc... Yes, I
like the JIRA despite everything. It's not appropriate for general
discussions though.
- Forum: there is actually one for Open Source (
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/forums/open-source). I know that some
folks at LL prefers this at it allows to create topics and sub threads more
easily. I went there today and posted in some discussions. I think it's
something we should use for specific discussions that would hijack the
mailing list but are not mature for JIRA yet. Thoughts?

Cheers,
- Merov
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