Re: Diversification [ branched from Re: conflicts in the gnu project now affect guile]

[Chris Vine <vine35792468@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 23 Oct 2019 15:43:26 +0200
<tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 11:37:24AM +0100, Chris Vine wrote:
> > "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de> wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > > I would prefer eventually having a forum/bulletin board-like Web
> > > interface to mailing lists in Guile and until then stick to pure
> > > mailing lists.
> > 
> > That's pretty much what discourse is - an attractive web interface to
> > something like mailing lists, with the option to use a mail client
> > interface as well as the web interface if you want.
> 
> I've some practical experience with Discourse and... I'd say it's
> the other way around. Shiny GUI is the paradigm, mail is just a
> let's-keep-those-old-goofs-happy afterthought.
> 
> If you're wired around mail, it's not enjoyable. Feels like
> a second-class citizen to me.
> 
> This doesn't sound positive, I know -- but I think the "problem"
> might lie at a deeper level and won't be solvable without deeper
> analysis (instead of hacking together yet-another-forum).

I think I have an in-built resistance to getting excited about the
format according to which someone's public text message is transferred
and/or displayed to me.  Using the expression "message list" as a
generic term, I use message lists which use mailman and message lists
which use discourse.  I still use usenet for some things.  All of these
seem OK and keep me happy.

There is only so much you can do right or wrong with such things.  I
certainly wouldn't be spending my time rewriting them.

If you want private mailing lists with privacy, verification and
encryption, then that's another kettle of fish.  There's plenty of room
for new thinking there for sure.