I'd like to add that having Discourse will provide
the one thing IRC
channels and mailing lists fail to - search capabilities. If you hangout
on
the #mediawiki IRC channel, you have probably noticed that we get a lot
of
repeat questions all the time. This would save everyone time and effort.
Not to mention ease of use. Discourse is way more usable than IRC or
mailing lists. Usability is the main reason there are so many questions
about MediaWiki asked on Stackoverflow instead:
...
I'd personally hope we can stop asking developers to go to IRC or mailing
lists eventually and use Discourse/something else as a discussion forum
for
support.
On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 1:31 PM, Quim Gil <qgil(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi, I have expanded
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discourse#One_place_to_
seek_developer_support
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Support_desk is the only channel
whose main purpose is to provide support. The volunteers maintaining are
the ones to decide about its future. There is no rush for any decisions
there. First we need to run a successful pilot.
The rest of channels (like this mailing list) were created for something
else. If these channels stop receiving questions from new developers, they
will continue doing whatever they do now.
I'd like to understand how adding a venue
will improve matters.
For new developers arriving to our shores, being able to ask a first
question about any topic in one place with a familiar UI is a big
improvement over having to figure out a disseminated landscape of wiki Talk
pages, mailing lists and IRC channels (especially if they are not used to
any of these environments). The reason to propose this new space is them,
not us.
On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 5:01 PM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:
Brian Wolff wrote:
>On Friday, November 17, 2017, Quim Gil <qgil(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> The Technical Collaboration team proposes the creation of a developer
>> support channel focusing on newcomers, as part of our Onboarding New
>> Developer program. We are proposing to create a site based on
Discourse
>> (starting with a pilot in
discourse-mediawiki.wmflabs.org) and to
point
>the
many existing scattered channels there.
What does point existing channels to discouse mean exactly? Are you
planning to shutdown any existing channels? If so, which ones?
Excellent questions. I'd like to know the answers as well.
I raised a similar point at
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Discourse>. I skimmed
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T155678>, looking for some answers,
and
I didn't find any.
Quim, are you involved in MediaWiki support in places such as the
#mediawiki IRC channel or the mediawiki-l mailing list? Are you involved
in MediaWiki support elsewhere? I'm trying to better understand how it
would be appropriate for you to seemingly suggest disrupting or shutting
down these established and functioning venues. If this is not your
suggestion, I'd like to understand how adding a venue will improve
matters.
MZMcBride
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
--
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
--
Niharika
Software Engineer
Community Tech
Wikimedia Foundation
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org