Mailing list cleanup proposal

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

Hi everyone,

A while back I proposed some changes to gnome-announce-list, and someone
replied that we should do a complete clean-up of the mailing list mess we
have. So, back in September I did this, and spoke to a few people about it,
but haven't had time to post it for discussion and do it.

It's mostly a cleanup of deprecated lists, and getting descriptions right.
Jonathan asked what would happen to archives... About half of the deprecated
lists are just shells, so their archives would be removed, the rest would be
shifted with any list moves.

This is just my analysis of the lists, adjusted with some external feedback,
but here for you to disagree with publically (to foundation-list too,
because there's lots of people who aren't on gnome-hackers, and it's more
productive than whining at each other) so we can make it better. :-)

I've compressed the information into silly, unusable codes. :-) Here's what
the status and action column codes mean:

Status:  NA = No Action
         LA = Little Action
         IU = In Use
         -- = Doesn't Exist

Action:  MD = Move Discussion
         RL = Rename List
         RT = Refer To
         CR = Create List
         DL = Deprecate List
         ID = Improve Descriptions


The List                Status  Action
--------                ------  ------

calendar-list           NA      DL,MD desktop-devel-list
eog-list                LA      DL,MD desktop-devel-list
eufoundation-list       NA      DL
fplan-list              NA      DL
fundraising-list        NA      RT,ID Tim & Leslie
gdome                   LA      ?
Globalpartners          NA      RT,ID Tim & Leslie (only recently created)
gnome-1.4-list          NA      DL Archives should be shifted to d-d-l
gnome-2-0-list          NA      DL Archives should be shifted to d-d-l
gnome-accessibility-*   IU      ID
artists-list            --      CR "GNOME Art & Themes Development" ???
gnome-announce-list     IU      ID "GNOME Software Release Announcements"
gnome-news-list         --      CR "GNOME News Announcements" (GWN, etc)
gnome-bugsquad          IU      ID
gnome-build-status      NA      DL
gnome-components-list   IU      DL,MD platform-devel-list ???
gnome-debugger-list     NA      DL,MD gnome-devtools
gnome-devel-list        IU      ID "Help with developing GNOME applications"
gnome-devtools          IU      ID
gnome-hackers-readonly  IU      is this stupid hackers/private mess worth it?
gnome-i18n-tools        NA      DL,MD gnome-devtools
gnome-kde-list          NA      DL Mostly freedesktop.org stuff now?
gnome-libs-devel        IU      RL,ID platform-devel-list (to fit with ddl)
gnome-list              IU      ID "GNOME User's Help and Discussion"
gnome-love              UI      ID "Wondering how to contribute to GNOME?"
gnome-office-libs       NA      DL,MD gnome-office-list
gnome-packaging-list    NA      DL,RT Greg - Is this still in use?
gnome-planning-summit   NA      DL,RT Tim
gnome-sound-list        --      should be removed from summary page
gnome-themes-list       NA      DL,MD gnome-art-list ???
gnome-ui-hackers        NA      DL,MD usability
gnome-vfs-list          IU      ID (shift to platform-devel-list?)
gnome-workshop-list     NA      DL,MD gnome-office-list
gnomecc-list            NA      DL,MD desktop-devel-list
guadec-list             IU      ID "Information for GUADEC Attendees"
guadec-planning         IU      ID "GUADEC Planning Committee Discussion"
hig                     LA      DL,MD usability
language-bindings       LA      need a list for general bindings disc'n?
libart                  NA      DL,MD platform-devel-list
libart-hackers          NA      DL,MD platform-devel-list

The rest of the lists don't need much help, although there could be a few
description fixes here and there.

Oh, lots of people have shown interest in moving the ftp release emails to a
public list; it's very useful for distributors, etc. Worth doing, I think.

Thoughts?

- Jeff

-- 
  "I run Linux on pretty much everything except the microwave and washing   
     machine. Those are tempting targets but would probably make Telsa      
                        extremely cross." - Alan Cox