[llvm-dev] [cfe-dev] Mailing List Status Update

[Tobias Hieta via llvm-dev]

On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 1:19 PM Aaron Ballman <aaron at aaronballman.com> wrote
> "is not really happening" -- I'm on IRC every day as a moderator and
> I'd say this happens on the IRC side of things at least once or twice
> a week. Perhaps you meant to say it's not really happening on Discord?

Yep you are totally right. I don't see this happening on Discord.

> I think this could be a demonstration that the culture of the
> community is being impacted by the fracturing. When people come to
> IRC, moderators and other users will point out that discord and the
> mailing lists are places where someone can also attempt to get an
> answer if they don't find it on IRC. (Telling users to ask on the
> mailing lists if no one has an answer on IRC has been the status quo
> since I joined the community, so this isn't a new practice.) Users
> respond by saying thanks and often following that advice. It sounds
> like on Discord, users who don't find an answer to their question
> maybe aren't being told about the other options? If so, this is a
> demonstration of *why* I'm concerned about further fracturing the
> community.

Well, I don't send people to IRC (and I haven't seen any other discord
users do that either) - but I often direct them to the mailing list if
they are not getting an answer in Discord, but at this point the
Discord community is pretty large and usually questions are being
answered so it's less of a problem.

I totally see the problem with fracturing the community - but it can
be seen from the other point of view as well, I never was never a part
of the IRC community and wouldn't have joined. But adding the discord
server ended up expanding the community and allowed me and many more
to be more invested in the project, that's a win in my book.

Technology shouldn't change just because of "it's new" - but if there
is a superior product that many more people are actively using we
shouldn't hold back because of inertia either.

All of the above is just my opinion of course, I have only been part
of this community a short while and haven't done anything really
important, I am just advocating for easier access since it has helped
me and many others to get more invested.

Thanks,
Tobias