[talk-au] topic A: the platform itself

[Edoardo Neerhut]

Thanks for bringing this up Herbert.

*Similar sentiments*
This has actually been bothering me the last few weeks as I started to
realise how much of my day is spent reading through talklists that do not
have relevance to me or that I do not have time to respond to. For those of
us subscribed to multiple talklists, it becomes a very time consuming and
inefficient communication method.

The problem is that you need to read every single one in case you miss
something relevant. There are lot of good conversations taking place and I
wish I had time to engage more, but I need to be selective.

*The platform*
I like the idea of a forum which can be categorised and allow the viewer to
make quicker decisions about which topics that would like to engage with.
Whether that is the OpenStreetMap forum or something else doesn't bother
me. Although the OpenStreetMap forum would make sense so that people can
find it easily.

Slack is very convenient, but it is not good for important discussions
because the messages get archived unless you sign up to a cost prohibitive
plan which our community would not be able to afford.

*Setting a standard*
I am not sure any of this can be dictated, but it is a good discussion to
have and I would be interested to see how the rest of the community feels.
Of course asking here is inherently going to target those already using the
talklists, so I will bring this up in other places as well.

Overall I support the interest to discuss this on a more efficient,
intuitive platform.

On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 at 09:10, David Wales <daviewales at disroot.org> wrote:

> I am a member of some international OSM Slack channels.
>
> However, because it requires a whole different app (which I only have
> space for on my computer), I only check it monthly at best.
>
> On the other hand, I read every talk-au message within a few days of
> original posting, because they all arrive in my email inbox on my phone.
>
> If the number of talk-au emails reaches overwhelming levels, it might be
> necessary to investigate other solutions. However, I don't think we have
> reached that point yet.
>
> If we ever did explore alternatives, I would prefer an open platform,
> which we can host ourselves, rather than Slack or some other proprietary
> system.
>
> Regards,
> David
>
> On 20 September 2019 4:31:44 pm AEST, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 9/20/19 03:14, Herbert.Remi via Talk-au wrote:
>>
>>> I will post several concerns and information on several issues, but the
>>> first is this platform itself.
>>>
>>
>> You call this platform a "forum" which is ok in the abstract sense, but
>> note that there is actually an Australia forum in addition to this
>> Australia mailing list
>> (https://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewforum.php?id=24). The forum
>> provides a slightly different user experience but is used less.
>>
>> In other countries, people have set up Slack channels or Facebook groups
>> or even more esoteric channels of communication, in addition of or as a
>> replacement for mailing lists - browse
>> https://github.com/osmlab/osm-community-index if you want to get an idea.
>>
>> There's no strict rule about where the OSM community should discuss
>> their issues, however media that requires prior registration with a
>> third-party entity - like Slack or Facebook - are sometimes frowned upon
>> as they give control over who can participate to that third party and
>> might require the participant to agree to wide-ranging exploitation of
>> their personal data by a commercial entity.
>>
>> In Germany where I hail from, the forum and the mailing list are used by
>> about the same number of (but largely different) people, and since the
>> total number of contributors is large enough to guarantee lively
>> discussion on both, that's totally fine. Germany also has mailing lists
>> for individual states but they are used very little, and even
>> state-specific issues would often be discussed on the nationwide list to
>> ensure they get enough attention.
>>
>> Speaking very generally, OSM has achieved the success it has with a
>> "just do it" attitude: Instead of saying, 15 years ago, "BEFORE we
>> start, let's come up with a good data scheme and a feature catalogue",
>> people said "let's just start and then fix things as we go along".
>>
>> My recommendation would be to just stat discussing whatever needs
>> discussing on the talk-au mailing list and branch out as the need
>> arises. If something is worth discussing then a non-ideal UI should not
>> be the blocker, and if it is, then maybe the issue is not so important.
>>
>> Bye
>> Frederik
>>
>> _______________________________________________
> Talk-au mailing list
> Talk-au at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au
>
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