[wp-hackers] Future of wp-hackers

[Callum Macdonald]

With 940 people on the list, noise is guaranteed.

I support separation of the list into various topics. For example:
* wp-discussion: Anything WP related
* wp-plugins: Plugin developer chat
* wp-core: Specifically discussing the direction of core

Currently, there's no formal documentation of decisions made on the 
list. It would be a major step forward to formalise decisions and the 
decision making process.

C.

Matt Mullenweg wrote:
> > But all the people
> > participating in this discussion were not aware that this was already
> > implemented.
>
> http://photomatt.net/2007/08/13/standard-argument/
>
> "Discussions are dominated chiefly by people who have time to dominate 
> discussions, which over time includes fewer and fewer of the people 
> who actually should."
>
> July and August, two months which had heightened activity on 
> wp-hackers had the lowest participation from any core developers, 
> including myself.
>
> Arguments over floating boxes and whether to use radio buttons or 
> checkboxes go on for twenty posts between people who don't realize 
> that the feature was implemented in core weeks before.[1]
>
> http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2007-September/014723.html 
>
>
> People talking past each other about PHP5 (AFTER a decision had been 
> made) generates hundreds of posts, yet Alex's post about unit tests, 
> which has the potential to have a real impact on the quality of WP in 
> the future, thuds with nary a response.
>
> http://blue.bikeshed.com/
>
> Unreasonable arguments, personal attacks, flame wars... the things 
> that have been generating most of the discussion on this list have 
> little to do with the success (or failure) of WordPress, unfortunately 
> that means the people who work the hardest day to day in the trenches 
> will avoid or batch their time here.
>
> Perhaps a new mailing list with moderated membership, or that was only 
> open to those who had made substantive contributions to the codebase 
> would be a good middle ground between private discussions, IRC, and 
> wp-hackers. I honestly don't know.
>
> > Unfortunately nobody aware of this already being
> > implemented posted a comment.
>
> I posted to the thread, though, on 9-15-2007:
>
> [1] Which I pointed out:
> http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Automatic-feedback-from-users-p12696664.html
>
> I'm not directing this at anyone personally, which is why I've started 
> a new thread even though I'm quoting a previous one, but I think 
> everyone should take a step back and examine what exactly we're doing 
> when we press the button that sends a message to the 940 members of 
> this list.
>