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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:e2111ef3-1471-6130-db25-f9389e721551@remote.org">Imports
are also difficult to do right. I think that someone who cannot be
bothered (in the best case) or lacks the technical capability (in
the worst case) to tackle a mailing list is never the right person
to execute an import. We can't have an importer tune out
mid-process because they have encountered an issue and are
unwilling to fire up an archaic JOSM plugin to fix it.<br>
</blockquote>
<p>Good point. I wanted to elaborate on this with some thoughts that
I've had: I believe a category on the discourse could have a post
with a detailed template that users can follow when posting about
their import. Time and time again I witness prospective importers
making mailing list messages without even linking their wiki page,
and often also not completing all steps that are expected before
writing the list. I see other users constantly asking for more
context to be provided, and requesting basic tasks be completed
that should have already been long done. Having a template to
follow can make it easier to understand what is expected from a
post, rather than having to go into the mailing list blind. <br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:e2111ef3-1471-6130-db25-f9389e721551@remote.org">Neither
is Discourse of course - it can still happen that you get buy-in
on Discourse and then you find out that local mappers are
overwhelmingly against what you are doing, just they weren't on
Discourse. </blockquote>
Sure, it's damn near impossible to get good levels of representation
in OSM discussions, due to the disconnected and spread out nature of
the community. But I will say that I've never seen any other channel
of communication have the same level of international participation
except maybe discord, but for obvious reasons I don't suggest moving
formal discussion there! While you are right that a user unable to
use a mailing list probably shouldn't be importing, is it fair to
say that those users should be excluded from the discussion?<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:e2111ef3-1471-6130-db25-f9389e721551@remote.org">Plus, I
have heard people say that if you are on a low-bandwidth Internet
connection, Discourse is a huge step back compared to a mailing
list. It is possible that Discourse is excluding people too - just
different people from those excluded by mailing lists.
<br>
</blockquote>
I can also see this possibly being a problem. however, you should
definitely take a look at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://meta.discourse.org/t/tutorial-for-using-discourse-over-email/111308">this
discussion</a> about using the discourse forum as a mailing list.
I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to in the other part of
this message, but I think that'd be great for bridging the gap. <br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:e2111ef3-1471-6130-db25-f9389e721551@remote.org">Having
said that, I am typing this in my thunderbird email client </blockquote>
Me as well!<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Thanks for the input,</p>
<p>--James Crawford (SherbetS)<br>
</p>
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