Hi all,
I wanted to split off the recent discussion by Peter and Travis suggesting
we may consider moving away from mailing lists in favor of MUCs. I think
this deserves its own thread so as not to dilute the ongoing conversation
in the previous discussion.
Personally, I am not in favor of abandoning mailing lists for this type of
discussion. Mailing lists have several important advantages:
- Time to respond thoughtfully: Mailing lists allow participants to
carefully compose responses. Some people are naturally quick at finding the
right words in real time, but others (also including many for whom English
is not a native language) benefit from (or simply prefer) having more time
to reflect. For example, composing this email took me 41 minutes (longer
than I care to admit), a duration that would generally be impractical in a
live chat room.
- Asynchronous participation and time zones: Mailing lists naturally
allow people to contribute "later" which is much harder to do in chat rooms
(where conversations 'moved on'). This is especially helpful for people in
different time zones or those who cannot respond immediately.
- Offline processing and focus: Threads in a mailing list are ordered
and easy to read offline. Chat rooms often mix multiple topics, making it
harder to follow the discussion. In practice, I don't expect the majority
of people to scroll back in history, which significantly reduces the
potential reach.
- Engaging quieter participants: Mailing lists often generate responses
from participants who do not otherwise join MUC discussions.
- Record keeping and referencing: Mailing list archives provide a
single, persistent URL for referencing discussions. Chat logs are often
fragmented and thus lack a canonical link.
I understand that, technically, XMPP technology could be used in ways
beyond standard instant messaging to support discussions like these, and
some clients could replicate many of the benefits of mailing lists.
However, in practice, I don't expect the majority of users to take
advantage of these features consistently. Even today, features such as
message references or reactions are inconsistently supported, which can
make following discussions difficult for people who cannot, or prefer not
to, change their XMPP implementation.
So while MUCs are great for fast-paced, interactive discussions where ideas
can bounce around quickly, I see mailing lists as far more practical for
thoughtful, organized discussions that people can read, reflect on, and
reference later.
Kind regards,
Guus