[Python-ideas] Digests (was Re: From mailing list to GitHub issues)

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 12:11 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull
<turnbull.stephen.fw at u.tsukuba.ac.jp> wrote:
> Barry Warsaw writes:
>  > On Aug 14, 2016, at 02:01 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
>  >
>  > >The biggest problem I'm seeing is with digests. Can that feature be
>  > >flagged off as "DO NOT USE THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ASKING
>  > >FOR"? So many people seem to select digest mode, then get extremely
>  > >confused by it.
>
> "So many"?  Of the 5018 posts on this list I've received since Sept
> 24, 2015 (some were private replies etc, but only a handful), exactly
> three were inappropriate replies to digests.
> [chomp details]
> I don't think this is anywhere near as damaging to the list as the
> practice of top-posting (let alone the bottom-posts, which are more
> frequent than reply-to-digest).

It's not just this list, though. I've seen the same phenomenon on
other Mailman lists too.

I think you're right that top-posting is more of an issue (certainly
it's far more prevalent), but it's also a lot harder to solve.

>  > Yes, we can turn off digests for python-ideas, or any Mailman mailing list.
>  >
>  > I was tempted to JFDI, but it would mean that ~25% of list members would no
>  > longer get messages.  That's because 254 out of 979 members are currently
>  > receiving digests.
>
> Is this really sufficient reason for eliminating a feature that more
> than 1 in 4 subscribers has explicitly chosen?  Most of whom never post?
>
> How about instead adding
>
>     "^Subject:.*Python-Ideas Digest, Vol \d+, Issue \d"
>
> to the spam filter, and so imposing moderation delay (or even
> rejection) on the poster?

That would be a decent idea. I was thinking more of the sign-up
screen, though. How many of those 25% of subscribers really want
digests, and how many of them completely misunderstood this:

"""Would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"""

and picked "Yes" because they want to receive mail every day, rather
than having to go to some web page to read it? My counter-suggestion
is to simply remove that option from the front page. Anyone who
genuinely wants a digest can go into their settings and request it;
Mailman's settings pages are a lot more verbose than a sign-up page
can be. The obvious default would then be the sane one.

ChrisA