[llvm-dev] RFC: Moving toward Discord and Discourse for LLVM's discussions

[David Chisnall via llvm-dev]

On 18/11/2019 16:39, Stefan Teleman via llvm-dev wrote:
> I can't recall an instance when I had difficulty using, or was
> intimidated by, email, for saying something on a mailing list.

Subscribing to a mailing list, particularly one as high-traffic as 
LLVM-Dev, is a high friction activity.  I was contributing to LLVM for 
several years before I subscribed to llvm-dev, because I didn't want to 
deal with the traffic volume (filtering is a lot better now, but having 
to set up a mail filter adds another step for subscribing).  The only 
open source projects that I interact with via mailing lists are ones 
where I am already an contributor.

IRC isn't great, but the web UI makes it a bit better.  In particular, 
it is very low friction: no creating an account, no need to have a 
password, just enter a one-shot username and log in.  It has two problems:

1. The web UI quickly fills up with control messages.  I don't care when 
people have logged on and off most of the time, especially if they were 
idle for 2 hours before they went away.

2. It has no persistence, so you can't ask a question, go away, and come 
back to find the answer.

David