Killing the gerrit to dev-list spam ...

[Bjoern Michaelsen]

Hi,

On Fri, May 03, 2013 at 12:40:42PM +0200, Thorsten Behrens wrote:
> Ok - but then I see even less reason for another list, if it is
> read-only. Gerrit already lets me get email for any number of events,
> with filters & all. So if additional action is necessary anyway -
> which subscribing to a 2nd list is - why not suggest to everyone
> interested to customize his or her own private gerrit firehose?

That is mostly true, but having a list has some additional advantages:
- Its an archive
- Its searchable and discoverable in google
- Some people dont wanna learn about gerrit and a mailing list is something
  that they easily know and understand (there are also people who know gerrit
  and dont like mailing lists, but there is no issue with that here)

> Sure. But it seems people appreciate the occasional email poke about
> new patches - why else was there the suggestion to have a daily digest
> from the gerrit list?

Well, yeah an occasional poke is fine. But having more than 50% of threads on
the list to be automatic notification -- that then dont follow up with the
content (the discussion), is not helpful.
 
> I'm with you that the current situation leaves something to be
> desired. I just disagree with the proposed solution, which in my mind
> does not help anyone with deeper interest in LibreOffice hacking -
> they'd have to subscribe to two lists, get even more email, and need
> even more filtering to stay afloat.

The majority of those not employed to work on LibreOffice seems to have a
different opinion though. Also note that you dont _have_ to subscribe the
second list: as you said gerrits watch feature should be just fine for most
things.

>  - cut down current gerrit email somewhat, to an acceptable level
>    * it seems there is ~consensus that at least new patches should be
>      notified to the list

I dont know if that is the consensus here, but I am certain its not my
position. ;)
The volume of mails is one issue, but the number of started threads is another
-- esp. considering how this represents the development of LibreOffice to the
outside world -- almost all representations, archives, mail and news readers of
the list show a threaded view, and number of started threads is just as
important as the total number of mails.

>  - encourage to have larger discussions on the dev list - hackers
>    watching such a discussion on gerrit could simply fwd the
>    notification email to the dev-list. That hopefully prevents the
>    'oh, decision $foo happened on that other list' argument, and
>    ghettoization into pro-hackers and volunteer hackers lists.

Agreed. Having visibility is good. ;)

Best,

Bjoern