[Zope] Proposal of forking the zope@zope.org list

[Oliver Bleutgen]

> Dieter Maurer wrote:
>>
>> I am not in favour of splitting the list.
>> I would subscribe to all sublists with the exception
>> of "zope-newbies".

> I'll go out on a limb here and say that, that's okay. You
> shouldn't subscribe to newbies.

>> But my social responsibility tells me, that newbies must
>> be able to voice their problems where there are more
>> experienced users that may solve them....



> The split lists would allow you more time to answer the tough
> ones (that's my selfish motive <vbg>).

Hehe, Me 2.

I think the problem is that many answers could be found
*today* with the investment of 5 minutes searching on
zope.org or at the searchable mailing lists at NIP (thanks NIP!).
My impression is that the "fast path" is mostly taken by zope
beginners, and not people who prefer to lure mailing lists for
some time to get an impression about the knowledge level
which is covered by that list.
It also would be sometimes impossible to find out the right
list to post if the topics would be too fine grained
(trivial example "Problems calling ZSQL-methods with parameters")
- i.e. if I am a newbie I'm probably not able to figure out 
what problem domain I am really chewing on.
And perhaps I would be resistant to think that something that
held me up for three days is really a *newbie* problem ;->.

My personal feeling is that if there is a decision for a split
it should be
zope@zope.org

The general list for Zope users - operation of and content 
management with Zope, including basic dtml programming and so forth. 

zope-dev@zope.org

A separate list for Zope developers, focusing more advanced aspects
of zope programming like ZClasses and pythons scripts and external
methods (...).

zope-core-dev@zope.org

Focusing on Zope's innards and continuing evolution. 


The second and third name may be changed, but I feel that
being a beginner with zope in many cases also means 
not being able to know where to ask, thus heading under
the zope@zope.org umbrella.

Perhaps the help which can be found online today
should be more exposed, for instance by linking
to the searchable archives (even) more prominently
and explicitly stating that they are a very useful
resource (they answer 9 out of 10 questions I normally
have and I mostly consult them before looking for howtos).

That way the more advanced zopistas wouldn't be
to bothered to churn out answers to FAQs, and people
like me could also get their piece of the 
philanthropy cake.

cheers,
oliver