[OSM-talk] Subscription of OSMF members to the osmf-talk mailinglist

[michael spreng]

Hi


As it was recently brought up in discussion, I want to clarify the
situation with the osmf-talk mailing list subscriptions.

Previously, new OSMF members were automatically subscribed some time
after signing up. I don't know how timely that was done before the
current iteration of the membership working group. But since about 2016,
new members were signed up in rather large badges: about once or twice a
year, an export was done from the membership register with new
memberships since the last time, and mass subscribed to the osmf-talk
mailing list.

Since the end of 2017, I ceased to automatically subscribe new members.
Instead, they are pointed to the mailinglist with the new welcome
message [1] which is sent to new members after sign up. As you can see,
the first sub topic there is "Participate in our OSMF-talk Mailing list".


What is the osmf-talk mailinglist:

The OSM foundation (OSMF) runs a mailing list for discussing OSM
*foundation* related matter (the OSMF is the formal legal entity
licensing the data and owning the database servers). As a community
project, the foundation should be steered by the community. In that
regard, that mailinglist is a central communication hub for the OSMF
members to discuss among themselves.

Why there is no automatic subscription anymore:

There was quite a bit of negative feedback. People expect to be informed
about OSMF matters, but being thrown into an ongoing debate was rather
unexpected and uncomfortable for many. Maybe too time consuming to deal
with just for being a member. So I proposed in the MWG that we do no
longer automatically subscribe people, but rather invite them to
subscribe themself. The MWG accepted that change and that is the current
status.
The plan is to have somewhat regular "news" posts from the OSMF, or more
specifically communications working group. Those news are probably a
more common format for a membership organisation, summarizing rather
than overwhelming some members with a detailed discussion and being
exposed to everything.

greetings
Michael from the membership working group

[1] https://join.osmfoundation.org/welcome-to-the-openstreetmap-foundation/