RE: [External] : Re: Discuss new features/enhancements or large changes for users in emacs-devel

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> >   > It doesn't _really_ matter (IMHO) who's
> >   > doing it - even if a discusser is a decider
> >   > (maintainer).  What matters is to get the
> >   > discussion viewed (and maybe participated
> >   > in) by a _wider audience_.
> >
> > I agree completely.
> >
> > When the topic of a thread wanders from A to B, there's no reason to
> > blame anyone.  It is natural that sometimes discussions wander, and
> > sometimes this wandering can convert a discussion of fixing a bug into
> > a decision about features.
> >
> > When that happens, we should recognize that the topic has changed,
> > and handle the new topic in the way that it calls for.
> 
> I don't think anyone will disagree, at least not in general.
> 
> That said, I would like to point out a few aspects that AFAIU are at
> the real core of the issues which prompted this:
> 
>   . a discussion could wander into a tangent, in which case TRT is to
>     ask people to make the tangent a separate discussion, instead of
>     moving it to emacs-devel
>   . we encourage people to submit "feature-request" bug reports (and
>     Emacs recently acquired the "M-x submit-emacs-patch" command for
>     that reason), in which case the bug list _is_ the proper place to
>     discuss that.  When the feature is significant and/or affects
>     Emacs or our users in prominent ways, prudence would mandate that
>     we move such general discussions to emacs-devel, but that's a
>     judgment call, not an automatic knee-jerk reaction

FWIW, I agree.

But if the tangent (first bullet) is not another
bug and isn't an enhancement, and the list is the
bug list, then a different list is likely better
(emacs-tangent, gnu-emacs-help, emacs-devel).