David Anderson has posted in the Boinc_dev mailing list, that he intends to outsource the discussions to Google because his own servers don't give him all the necessary functions.

What are the problems with this forum and the mailing lists, that have to be solved by outsourcing?

Should Rytis, Nicolas, Ananas, mo.v, Ageless etc. stop developping this boards, as it seems they should become obsolete in the haed admins mind?

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

... Ananas ...

I'm just a visitor like you :-)

From the actual mailing lists, posted by didactylos:

Dr Anderson is right: searching the list archives is almost impossible.

Uwe Herzke is right: creating a poorly publicised Google Group does
little to help.

Can we have a go at solving the root of the problem? Off the top of my
head, I can see 4 or 5 alternatives.

1. Fix the Mailman functionality. I'm fairly sure I've seen Mailman
extended with better searching. Note: I may be thinking of Pipermail.

2. Migrate all the mailing lists to new Google groups. Pro: easy. Con:
totally disconnected from BOINC; needs separate user accounts etc.

3. Create BOINC forums using the BOINC forum software, alongside the
existing dev forums. Pro: the devil you know. Con: the developers don't
seem to like using the dev forums, much.

4. Use the wiki. Pro: it would encourage people to create tickets for
bugs. Con: people would probably create tickets for everything else,
too.

5. Extend Trac with a discussion plugin. I know at least one such exists
( http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/DiscussionPlugin ). This is my personal
preference. Pro: strong integration with Trac, and trac/wiki
formatting/linking. Con: difficult or impossible to import the mailing
list archive. (This con also applies to 3, 4 and probably 2.)

Comments?

David Barnard

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

3. Create BOINC forums using the BOINC forum software, alongside the
existing dev forums. Pro: the devil you know. Con: the developers don't
seem to like using the dev forums, much.

Isn't #3 what we already have here? Why would a second set of forums be needed?

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

From the actual mailing lists, posted by didactylos:

Dr Anderson is right: searching the list archives is almost impossible. [...] I can see 4 or 5 alternatives.

1. Fix the Mailman functionality. I'm fairly sure I've seen Mailman
extended with better searching. Note: I may be thinking of Pipermail.

2. Migrate all the mailing lists to new Google groups. Pro: easy. Con:
totally disconnected from BOINC; needs separate user accounts etc.[...]

I think the real devil is in the devs. If they really do not like to use the forums and request having all communication in the emails, then they can as well use the email search functionality of their own clients, can't they?

Peter

How many different places are crunchers who are trying to keep informed of developments expected to visit?

If boinc and boinc project developers have to go off-site to Google for their discussions when there's a perfectly functional and well-organised forum here, something is wrong.

I don't want to have to join any Google group. The sign-up page asks you to specify whether your group will be posting 'adult-only' content, which presumably means p*rn. ('Adult-only' posters have to tick the box.) I don't want to belong to any group that exists alongside p*rn groups. It doesn't matter that I wouldn't visit them - I don't want to use the same registration page as them.

I also hope not to have to post on Trac more than the absolute necessary minimum. I can't even learn how to post bold and italic there without looking at the preview multiple times and randomly experimenting with ' and '. This of course has the advantage/disadvantage of deterring most of the uninitiated from posting there.

I find the boinc-format forums infinitely more functional than email lists. And in any case, the functionality of boinc forums is under the control of boinc itself.