What is the modern version of doing things by a mailing list?

[yeehi]

There is one Ubuntu based project I want to help and currently the developers communicate by a mailing list. They don't use the forum. Actually, their mails appear in the forum. (It is a Drupal forum, in case you are interested.)

One big problem with this facility / working practice is that having a forum that can receive posts by mail means it gets a lot of spam.

Another separate problem is that the functionality of the forum is very basic. (There are some plugins for Drupal forum which add a bit of functionality, though.)

The forums here for Ubuntu based on vBulletin are brilliant, I think, but it is not free, as in freedom, software, and the software for the project in question must use free software.

Anyway, I would love for the project to start using SMF (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php)forums. They are free, have tons of functionality and look gorgeous. Check them out!

This aside, what I really want to know is what is the advanced, better way than a mailing list?

I would love to hear your experiences and opinions about this. Please let me know!

EDIT

Do RSS feeds / Atom help much here at all?

[oldos2er]

Moved to Community Cafe.

[Dave_L]

If the developers like using the mailing list to communicate, you're probably wasting your time trying to change that.

Mailing lists usually have anti-spam features, such as requiring new registrations to be approved by an administrator, and pre-approving new subscribers' posts.

[SeijiSensei]

Trust me, there are lots of good reasons to have listservers, and those reasons will persist as long as there is email.

I manage lists for an organization that assists consumer attorneys around the US. Email is by far their preferred method of communication. The subscribers know how to use email, and they know how to attach files to distribute them to their fellow subscribers. In cases where they want to review past submissions I maintain an online archive using hypermail and a private htdig search engine. (Someday I might move all the messages into a database and use SphinxSearch instead.) Some of these lists date back to the mid 1990s and are as active today as they ever were.

[jonathonblake]

what I really want to know is what is the advanced, better way than a mailing list?

IMNSHO, mailing lists outperform everything yet created for communication between individuals on the Internet.

However:
Some developers find IRC to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find web forums to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find micro-blogs to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find whiteboards to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find VoIP to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find blogging to be more satisfactory;
Some developers find working in person, face to face, to be more satisfactory;

What works best for a group depends upon:
Geographic distance;
Time zone separation;
Type of project;
Number of developers;
Stage of development;
Programming languages used within the project;
Imaginary Property Rights, and laws related to that type of delusional thinking;
Spoken languages used by the developers;
Written languages used by the developers;
Writing system;
Time constraints;
Internet bandwidth;
Financial resources;

The major flaw in most FLOSS projects is inadequate documentation, and non-existant customer support;

jonathon

[vasa1]

The one thing I don't like about mailing lists is people who indiscriminately quote and requote and requote and requote so that you see stuff like:


In reply to this post by Dxx Lxxx
On 6/28/12 3:38 AM, Dxx wrote:

> Kxx Sxxxx wrote:
>> On 6/27/12 7:57 PM, Dxx wrote:
>>> Kxx Sxxxx wrote:
>>>> On 6/27/12 5:48 PM, Dxx wrote:
>>>>> Kxx Sxxxx wrote:
>>>>>> Is there a more detailed set of examples of using the functions
>>>>>> anywhere? The Help Files have a general outline of each, but only
>>>>>> very generic examples of how to use them.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I need to nest some of the functions, if that's possible.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Have you downloaded the Calc Guide. These things should be
>>>>> in one
>>>>> of the chapters or appendices.
>>>>
>>>> Hi, Dxx.
>>>>
>>>> I haven't checked the Calc Guide, but if it's similar to the Writer
>>>> Guide, it won't go to the depth I'm interested in. :-(
>>> But you won't know until you look will you? Guessing the content
>>> based upon another guide might be a mistake.
>>
>> Didn't mean that to sound like I wasn't going to check it out. Call it
>> getting old and finding my expectations of useability of vendor
>> supplied publications over the years to be lacking what I want to
>> know. :-)
> Then perhaps I have been pointing out a possible error in your
> attitude. At age 70, my computer has user guides for Calc, Draw,
> Impress, and Writer. If I run into a problem, I go to one of them for
> the answer. So, what does age have to do with it? Before I made my
> second reply, I looked at the table of contents for the Calc Guide. I
> notice that Appendix B has 40 pages (8.5x11) on Calc functions.
> If I want to nest functions, I can click a cell and then click the
> function wizard. It will help me put them in the proper order. (You did
> not mention if you used this or not. Nor do I know if this works on the
> number of nesting that you want.)
... [show rest of quote]

I wouldn't worry errors in my attitude, I've just become so used to

And then there's the footer that can occur more than once:


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[lisati]

Like vasa1, I've seen mailing lists where people are lazy when editing replies or fail to read the "unsubscribe" information, and the waste of bandwidth can get annoying, particularly when someone's on a slow connection. There's not always a lot the mailing list admin can do about it, apart from putting persistent offenders on moderation: putting out the occasional reminder to "snip" quotes seems to have little effect.

[SeijiSensei]

I handle that problem by imposing length limits on messages. On another list I manage, most of the subscribers receive the once-a-day "digest" version of the list. We constantly faced the problem of people hitting reply and including an entire digest when the reply pertained to just a single posting, or often just part of a single posting. On that list, submissions are limited to 15,000 characters; it works well.

That's not really an option on lists where people often attach documents. On those lists I still maintain some length limits, but they are more in the neighborhood of two megabytes.

[yeehi]

Thanks for all your replies so far.

I found an interesting article about this issue here (http://www.freelock.com/blog/john-locke/2010-03/mailing-list-or-forum-theory/).

It talks about the difference between push and pull technology. One interesting point mentioned is that e-mail allows you to receive the information in the way you want it.

I am still keen to hear more opinions / experiences.

Thank you!

[Peripheral Visionary]

I like mailing lists too, just personal preference, because:



Users can use their good ol' familiar e-mail software to read and respond to messages. It eliminates the need for users to learn how to navigate through new software.
A well-moderated moderated e-mail loop suffers less from spam because users have to be approved to join and if there's any question, any user can be placed "on moderation" at any time.
The better list servers offer a choice of daily digest form, weekly digests, or daily or "instant." One might also choose between plain text or HTML. That's rare on web-based forums.

Of course there are pros and cons, but for those of us who have limited internet capacity or "e-mail only" Internet access, an e-mail loop offers all the fun of a forum with less hassle.