[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-community
Subject:    Re: Proposal: Mailing List owner policy
From:       Thomas Baumgart <thb () net-bembel ! de>
Date:       2020-07-23 19:29:45
Message-ID: 1871741.GxSmRbCxO7 () thb-nb
[Download RAW message or body]


On Donnerstag, 23. Juli 2020 10:38:10 CEST Ben Cooksley wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 4:55 PM Valorie Zimmerman
> <valorie.zimmerman@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > On Wed, Jul 22, 2020 at 3:31 PM Albert Astals Cid <aacid@kde.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > > Dear Community,
> > > 
> > > One important part of mailing lists being healthy is owners/moderators[1].
> > > 
> > > They moderate the lists, they help users that want to subscribe/unsubscribe but \
> > > don't know how to, they enact emergency moderation in the very very seldom case \
> > > that it is needed, etc. 
> > > So to keep our mailing lists healthy we need to be sure to have healthy list \
> > > owners. 
> > > In plural, more than one, because from time to time, we go on vacation and the \
> > > list duties still need taking care of. 
> > > For that I'd like to enact this policy:
> > > 
> > > Mailing lists should have at least 2 active owners, ideally 3 [Obviously \
> > > exceptions apply, like if we just started a mailing list to coordinate \
> > > translators for a language that has no translation in KDE yet, we'd probably \
> > > have no way to get 2 list owners] 
> > > One keyword in that sentence is "active".
> > > 
> > > Mailing list ownership/moderation un-activity is hard to detect.
> > > 
> > > One way to potentially detect it, is by those summaries that sysadmin sends \
> > > periodically for lists with lots of mails to moderate, but that doesn't cover \
> > > all the cases. 
> > > For example, it's possible that a mailing list has 2 owners and only one of \
> > > them is inactive, since the other one is keeping the list in working condition \
> > > we don't see it as a problem, but if that person goes on holiday, then it \
> > > suddenly is. 
> > > For that I'd like to enact this policy sub-point:
> > > 
> > > Mailing list owners will be contacted every year asking if they are still \
> > > active and if they want to continue being list owner or if they'd prefer we \
> > > find a substitute. 
> > > If they say "please find a substitute" or fail to answer in a given time frame \
> > > (I'd say a month is fair), they will be removed as owners and in case the "at \
> > > least 2 active owners, ideally 3" policy is broken we'll find a new person. 
> > > Does that sound something like we could agree on?
> > 
> > 
> > I think this is a good idea.
> > 
> > > Then the big question is "who will do this work?" Because it seems quite a bit \
> > > of work (albeit only once a year). I would suggest the Community Working Group \
> > > does this, as it's a way to keep our community healthy, but i understand it's \
> > > quite some work, so i volunteer to do it if the CWG doesn't feel this is a task \
> > > they want to take on.
> > 
> > 
> > As a member of CWG, I think that this is a suitable task for us, and I'm willing \
> > to do it. However, surely there is a master list of all the lists and who the \
> > stated owners and mods are. If so, can't the sending be done somewhat \
> > automatically? With the answers going to the CWG or whoever, to find replacement \
> > people. 
> 
> You'd need a way of catching the exceptions - the people who don't reply though.
> Not sure how easy that would be to automate, but it's probably possible.
> 
> In terms of getting a list of all lists, we can provide one of those
> (it's attached). I'm not sure if Mailman provides anything out of the
> box that lists who the owners of a list are though.

list_admins -a

should provide that.

Cheers

Thomas


> > > Things I'm missing?
> > 
> > 
> > Healthy lists are somewhat active. While a major protective duty of owners and \
> > mods is to keep spam out and keep conversations moving in a positive way, another \
> > is to keep the list active by bringing to it appropriate topics of discussion. I \
> > don't want that forgotten. Too often issues are discussed in IRC and never \
> > brought to the list where they ought to be. 
> > > Improvement suggestions?
> > > 
> > > Cheers,
> > > Albert
> > > 
> > > [1] yes, i know they are not the same, but since one is a subset of the other, \
> > > let's pretend they are.
> > 
> > 
> > I would like to hear from Sysadmin how many lists we have and how many owners and \
> > if there is a way to automatically send an email to all owners along with the \
> > names of the lists they administer. 
> > Valorie
> 
> Cheers,
> Ben


["signature.asc" (application/pgp-signature)]

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]