Communication

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi DJ,


On Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 11:22:16AM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 6:54 AM Mark Wielaard <mark@klomp.org> wrote:
> > Instead you retreated to some off-list meeting
> 
> I think this statement indicates a problem we need to solve.

Agreed. And to be clear the way I phrased it makes it sound like I
single out one particular person, but I know I am also part of the
problem. I think Zack was correct pointing out I was trying to do the
same thing by suggesting to move the discussion to some irc
channel. The problem we need to solve (in the future) is to create
other "official" places where the community as a whole can discuss
things that aren't just patch reviews, and make it possible for
everybody to participate. My solution would be to simply split
libc-alpha into libc-discuss and libc-patches. But ...

> Yes,
> we're all old-school curmudgeons who prefer email, but the rest of the
> world differs.  To them, WE are the ones retreating to some obscure
> mailing list, and they wonder why we hide our conversations there,
> instead of in an open web forum like everyone else.  Ours is not the
> only perspective.
> 
> I strongly feel that we need to be open to other forms of
> communication besides plain text email or we risk the project
> suffering a lack of community when the old farts retire.

Also agreed. Note that libc-alpha accepts HTML emails, we don't force
plain text. But you are probably right that email in general isn't
"modern" anymore. I certainly have spend way too much time trying to
help people sent email to a mailinglist. Not just for patches, but
also for people who would like to jump into a thread and don't know to
"insert" a message to a list they aren't subscribed to (hint
inbox.sourceware.org exports all lists through IMAP).

For patches I would really try to promote the forge. But I don't know
a good solution to replace mailinglist discussions. irc or bbb aren't
it. They force people to be available at a certain time or miss out.

> Full disclosure: I'm an old fart, and I'm approaching retirement, and
> I generally only read the mailing lists.  That doesn't mean I can't
> see the bigger picture and hope for a better future for glibc.

Thanks,

Mark