[Zope] REMINDER: Keep technical discussions on zope-dev!

[Don Porter]

On 10 Nov, Paul Everitt wrote:
> 
> I'm resending the message below as a gentle nudge for folks.  There are
> some more email threads such as:
> 
>   o Exception ThreadLock.error: 'release unlocked lock'
> 
>   o Using regexes in DTML expressions
> 
>   o Property Sheet Questions
> 
>   o How can you tell if what kind of object it is?
> 
> ...that are better discussed on zope-dev@zope.org.  

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

When I see a choice between two lists, zope and zope-dev, I assume
the first is for the users of Zope -- all the people using all the
facilities Zope provides to build, publish and maintain web sites.
I assume the second is for the developers of Zope -- all the people
working on the code which makes up Zope, fixing bugs, adding features,
preparing the release of Zope 2.1.

Given that understanding, only the first of your four examples
strikes me as a topic which might belong on zope-dev.  All the
others relate to topics about how to use Zope.

You are asking those on the zope list to move to the zope-dev list
when they have a topic which is "technical".  That is a judgment
call which no two readers will make the same.  Where should
questions about aquisition be posted?  That's a pretty complex
topic which confuses most people at least at first.  Is that 
"technical"?  On the other hand, it's a topic which every Zope
user who builds anything beyond the most trivial web site needs
to understand.

If topics are sorted based on the vague notion of "technical",
I have no idea which list will have the answers to questions I
have.  Consequently, I'll have to subscribe to both lists.  So
much for managing the traffic problem.

> I'm not trying to be
> _too_ much of a nag, but I'm getting a LOT of feedback from people again
> saying the traffic is overwhelming and the list needs to be split.

The traffic *is* overwhelming, and the list does need to be split,
but split it into clear subtopics (DTML, Databases, ZClasses, ...).
Also, retain the zope list as one which distributes all the messages.
That is, every message to a sub-list is copied to the main zope list.
That way zope remains the list for people who are interested in all
aspect of using Zope, say, because they're a one-man shop.  People
interested in more focused discussions could subscribe only to, say,
zope-db.

I'm enough of a Zope newbie, I won't venture to enumerate a list of
subtopics, but any partition will be better than some vague advice
that "technical" messages belong on zope-dev.

BTW, if zope-dev is not for the developers of zope, then what mailing
list is for them?  Surely an open-source project has a mailing list
on which its developers discuss design issues?

-- 
| Don Porter                                       dgporter@erols.com  |  
|           "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"              |
|                       -- Adam West as BATMAN                         | 
|______________________________________________________________________|