Closing mailing lists

Closing mailing lists

[Corinna Vinschen]

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Hi overseers,


given the low traffic on some of the Cygwin lists, we would like to drop
some of them.  While discussing this, we were not entirely clear how to
handle a situation like this.

Some of the lists we would simply close with a last mail saying this
list is closing, the job of the list is moving over to list Y.  That
would be

  cygwin-licensing
  cygwin-patches
  cygwin-talk

Howver, we're also planning to merge

  cygwin-xfree          --> cygwin
  cygwin-xfree-announce --> cygwin-announce.

Especially the latter gives us a bit of headache.  What do we do with
the subscribers of cygwin-xfree-announce?  Should they be automatically
subscribed to cygwin-announce, if they aren't already, or should this
ideally be left to the subscribers?

You probably have some experience with how to handle such a situation,
certainly much more than we have (which is along the lines of "nil").

Any input from overseers would be helpful.


Thanks,
Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Maintainer
Red Hat

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Re: Closing mailing lists

[Frank Ch. Eigler]

Hi, Corinna -

> given the low traffic on some of the Cygwin lists, we would like to drop
> some of them.  While discussing this, we were not entirely clear how to
> handle a situation like this.

OK.  I don't have any real advice as to policy decisions like the ones
you are asking.  What option is best for your community is entirely up
to you and them.  (In their shoes, the first thing I'd ask is what's
unsatisfactory about the status quo.)

(Overseers can provide mechanism - i.e. actual shutdown, outright
deletion, or copying of subscription lists, that sort of thing.)

- FChE

Re: Closing mailing lists

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Mar  1 10:55, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> Hi, Corinna -
> 
> > given the low traffic on some of the Cygwin lists, we would like to drop
> > some of them.  While discussing this, we were not entirely clear how to
> > handle a situation like this.
> 
> OK.  I don't have any real advice as to policy decisions like the ones
> you are asking.  What option is best for your community is entirely up
> to you and them.  (In their shoes, the first thing I'd ask is what's
> unsatisfactory about the status quo.)

Well, the first three lists I mentioned are pretty much undisputable
not required anymore.

Merging the announce lists is also helpful since there's only one list
left with all the announcements, rather than two with a somewhat
artificial spilt between them.

The two problems left are

- The cygwin-xfree list probably has its defenders in the community so
  this may deserve a discussion on the list.

- What to do with subscribers of an announce list if its merged into
  another announce list?  Moving the subscribers over or just informing
  them of the close down?  How is that usually handled?

It's the latter which would be interesting to know.


Thanks,
Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Maintainer
Red Hat

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Re: Closing mailing lists

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Mar  1 17:17, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Mar  1 10:55, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> > Hi, Corinna -
> > 
> > > given the low traffic on some of the Cygwin lists, we would like to drop
> > > some of them.  While discussing this, we were not entirely clear how to
> > > handle a situation like this.
> > 
> > OK.  I don't have any real advice as to policy decisions like the ones
> > you are asking.  What option is best for your community is entirely up
> > to you and them.  (In their shoes, the first thing I'd ask is what's
> > unsatisfactory about the status quo.)
> 
> Well, the first three lists I mentioned are pretty much undisputable
> not required anymore.
> 
> Merging the announce lists is also helpful since there's only one list
> left with all the announcements, rather than two with a somewhat
> artificial spilt between them.
> 
> The two problems left are
> 
> - The cygwin-xfree list probably has its defenders in the community so
>   this may deserve a discussion on the list.
> 
> - What to do with subscribers of an announce list if its merged into
>   another announce list?  Moving the subscribers over or just informing
>   them of the close down?  How is that usually handled?
> 
> It's the latter which would be interesting to know.

Btw., if we close mailing lists, will the archives stay available?


Thanks,
Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Maintainer
Red Hat

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Re: Closing mailing lists

[Frank Ch. Eigler]

Hi -

On Sun, Mar 01, 2015 at 09:00:31PM +0100, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> [...]
> > > OK.  I don't have any real advice as to policy decisions like the ones
> > > you are asking.  What option is best for your community is entirely up
> > > to you and them.  (In their shoes, the first thing I'd ask is what's
> > > unsatisfactory about the status quo.)
> > 
> > Well, the first three lists I mentioned are pretty much undisputable
> > not required anymore.

(OK, but the status quo may still be fine.  Such unused lists don't
consume resources.)


> > Merging the announce lists is also helpful since there's only one list
> > left with all the announcements, rather than two with a somewhat
> > artificial spilt between them.
> > 
> > The two problems left are
> > 
> > - The cygwin-xfree list probably has its defenders in the community so
> >   this may deserve a discussion on the list.
> > 
> > - What to do with subscribers of an announce list if its merged into
> >   another announce list?  Moving the subscribers over or just informing
> >   them of the close down?  How is that usually handled?
> > 
> > It's the latter which would be interesting to know.

You/the community need to decide what you would like to happen and
then let us know.


> Btw., if we close mailing lists, will the archives stay available?

Again, you/the community need to decide what you would like to happen
and then let us know.  (IMHO outright deleting a list, together with
its history/archives, would be undesirable.)


- FChE