Hi all, While I was gone I thought a bit about the flame war a few weeks ago and some of the very unpleasant private emails some people decided to send me as a result, most of them demanding that I solve *their* particular problem for them. I wanted to get people's feel for what the policy should be for this mailing list. I have so far tried to limit it to the syslinux loader family plus tftp-hpa, to keep the volume down. Unfortunately we get lots of people asking questions about all kinds of boot loading issues, and sometimes not even that. Worse, recently we seem to have gotten a spat of people who keep re-sending the same message over and over until they get the kind of reply they want. I'm wondering what the people here -- especially the regulars -- think about this whole issue. One option I'm considering is to make the "syslinux" mailing list a looser scope, and create a separate "syslinux-devel" mailing list for the hardcore development work. However, none of this is useful if there is no community to go with it; and experience has shown that newbies with questions will happily spam whatever lists they think will give them the answer they want, so having a users list would only be useful if there will still be people hanging around and helping the newbies out. -hpa
Hi!> -----Original Message----- > From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] > Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 8:04 PM > To: SYSLINUX at zytor.com > Subject: [syslinux] Mailing list policy question > > Hi all, > > While I was gone I thought a bit about the flame war a few > weeks ago and > some of the very unpleasant private emails some people > decided to send > me as a result, most of them demanding that I solve *their* > particular > problem for them. > > I wanted to get people's feel for what the policy should be for this > mailing list. I have so far tried to limit it to the syslinux loader > family plus tftp-hpa, to keep the volume down. Unfortunately we get > lots of people asking questions about all kinds of boot > loading issues, > and sometimes not even that. Worse, recently we seem to have > gotten a > spat of people who keep re-sending the same message over and > over until > they get the kind of reply they want. > > I'm wondering what the people here -- especially the regulars > -- think > about this whole issue. One option I'm considering is to make the > "syslinux" mailing list a looser scope, and create a separate > "syslinux-devel" mailing list for the hardcore development work. > However, none of this is useful if there is no community to > go with it; > and experience has shown that newbies with questions will > happily spam > whatever lists they think will give them the answer they > want, so having > a users list would only be useful if there will still be > people hanging > around and helping the newbies out.I'm ok with that. I'll subscribe to whatever list gets created in order to continue to get more knowledge about the syslinux family. However, I can also still help the newbies in some way, if that question is syslinux related. Or even redirect them to the proper mailing list or website, I think it can help their problem. Count me in to help support the newbies. Luis Correia
Hi, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com> schrieb am 24.02.05 21:19:18:> I wanted to get people's feel for what the policy should be for this > mailing list. I have so far tried to limit it to the syslinux loader > family plus tftp-hpa, to keep the volume down. Unfortunately we get > lots of people asking questions about all kinds of boot loading issues, > and sometimes not even that. Worse, recently we seem to have gotten a > spat of people who keep re-sending the same message over and over until > they get the kind of reply they want. > > I'm wondering what the people here -- especially the regulars -- think > about this whole issue. One option I'm considering is to make the > "syslinux" mailing list a looser scope, and create a separate > "syslinux-devel" mailing list for the hardcore development work. > However, none of this is useful if there is no community to go with it; > and experience has shown that newbies with questions will happily spam > whatever lists they think will give them the answer they want, so having > a users list would only be useful if there will still be people hanging > around and helping the newbies out.I think this should not be split up. The mailing list is still low-volume. The problem is: Some issues are really development specific. Others are general use of syslinux. Others deal somewhere between tftpd, pxelinux, rom code and kernel/initrd, and it isn't even clear after the second look which of these parts fail. Others are really off-topic and deal about making an initrd, compiling a kernel etc.pp. So creating two lists would tend the newbies to post to *both* lists, since they don't read the description anyways. And for others it isn't even clear if this is a development issue or a general issue about syslinux. Where would you put feature requests? The devel list ? What if the feature request arises in the general list through a discussion? Things would be crossposted to the devel list? Regards, Josef ______________________________________________________________ Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193
-----Original Message----- From: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com on behalf of Josef Siemes Sent: Fri 2/25/2005 8:05 PM To: SYSLINUX at zytor.com Subject: Re: [syslinux] Mailing list policy question Hi, <SNIP> I think this should not be split up. The mailing list is still low-volume. The problem is: Some issues are really development specific. Others are general use of syslinux. Others deal somewhere between tftpd, pxelinux, rom code and kernel/initrd, and it isn't even clear after the second look which of these parts fail. Others are really off-topic and deal about making an initrd, compiling a kernel etc.pp. So creating two lists would tend the newbies to post to *both* lists, since they don't read the description anyways. And for others it isn't even clear if this is a development issue or a general issue about syslinux. Where would you put feature requests? The devel list ? What if the feature request arises in the general list through a discussion? Things would be crossposted to the devel list? Regards, Josef <SNIP> Apologies for my dodgy OWA MUA which munges replies.. I agree, the list shouldn't be split, it is a very low portion of my daily read, and I think it will cause hassles for people identifying where they should be posting. Just my .02 Regards, Daniel Rose