Who owns ruby-forum.com and why is it connected
to the mailing list?
Is this policy open for discussion?
Hal
Hal F. wrote:
Who owns ruby-forum.com and why is it connected
to the mailing list?Is this policy open for discussion?
I think it being connected to the mailing list has a lot of benefits and
as far as I know there has been no spam caused by it yet.
It would be cool if it had support for receiving attachments, though.
Florian G. schrieb:
Hal F. wrote:
Who owns ruby-forum.com and why is it connected
to the mailing list?
I guess it is Andreas S., as the footer suggested!?
g,
On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 21:03 +0900, Austin Z. wrote:
originate there, there’s a lot of trollish and generally impolite
behaviour.It would be cool if it had support for receiving attachments, though.
It’d be even cooler if it had more than a single line in the main list
of “forums” that the “Ruby Forum” is a gateway to the ruby-talk
mailing list. Or if the posting forum didn’t allow you to post to
ruby-talk’s gateway as a guest.
Just that would be an improvement, IMO.
I really like the effort that Andreas has put into Ruby-Forum and it’s
good software, but I think that there are impedance mismatch issues
with its use as a mailing list gateway. I don’t know how much it
affects people who use “real” threading mail and newsreaders, but it
also mangles subject lines and messes up Google’s grouping in gmail.
In evolution, subject lines are okay but when I hit reply to a
ruby-forum message its headers are set up to go to the newsgroup rather
than the list. That’s pretty annoying now they’re separate (and
ruby-forum posts don’t seem to hit the newsgroup anyway).
Ross B. wrote:
[…] Or if the posting forum didn’t allow you to post to
ruby-talk’s gateway as a guest.Just that would be an improvement, IMO.
That might be helpful.
I would hate to see the forum disconnected from the list. In
combination with firefox tabs and mouse gestures, its one of the
fastest ways to skim the list.
– Jim W.
It’s nice to skim the list, but I find it’s easy to misquote when you
have all the posts in front of you, it gives you the impression that
you’re on a forum where it really doesn’t matter. A “ruby-talk” label
in Gmail is just as easy, I’ve found.
On 6/6/06, Florian G. [email protected] wrote:
Hal F. wrote:
Who owns ruby-forum.com and why is it connected
to the mailing list?
Is this policy open for discussion?
I think it being connected to the mailing list has a lot of benefits and
as far as I know there has been no spam caused by it yet.
No, not spam. If, however, you look at the quality of postings that
originate there, there’s a lot of trollish and generally impolite
behaviour.
It would be cool if it had support for receiving attachments, though.
It’d be even cooler if it had more than a single line in the main list
of “forums” that the “Ruby Forum” is a gateway to the ruby-talk
mailing list. Or if the posting forum didn’t allow you to post to
ruby-talk’s gateway as a guest. Or if it even said “hey, moron! you’re
not just posting to a web forum here! you’re posting to a mailing
list!”
I really like the effort that Andreas has put into Ruby-Forum and it’s
good software, but I think that there are impedance mismatch issues
with its use as a mailing list gateway. I don’t know how much it
affects people who use “real” threading mail and newsreaders, but it
also mangles subject lines and messes up Google’s grouping in gmail.
There’s a definite etiquette problem, and unless something is changed,
I do think that the benefits are outweighed by the negatives.
-austin
On Jun 6, 2006, at 13:27, Jim W. wrote:
Ross B. wrote:
[…] Or if the posting forum didn’t allow you to post to
ruby-talk’s gateway as a guest.Just that would be an improvement, IMO.
That might be helpful.
It might be helpful, but I’m not really sure that it’s the medium of
posting that’s the problem. There wasn’t any similar problem when
the usenet gateway worked.
That said, I’m also of the view that the quality and tone of the
questions from ruby-forum often leave something to be desired.
I have a hunch this is because google groups and mailing lists tend
to be used by people who already know what they’re looking for, and
already know where the docs live. I’d bet that a number of the
people posting from the forum are probably not aware of all the
resources available to them.
I think that it might be a better improvement to add links to
standard Ruby documentation (ruby-lang.org, online Pickaxe, ruby-
doc.org, Poignant Guide, et alia) on the forum pages - currently they
only link to other forums. I’m pretty firm in my belief that this
would benefit everyone involved. And I mean, really, what good is a
‘ruby forum’ that lacks even a link to the ruby homepage?
If such links actually improve things, then everyone benefits. If it
doesn’t, well, we can always ask to move it read-only later on.
matthew smillie.
On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 03:36 +0900, James B. wrote:
that lacks even a link to the ruby homepage?
Agreed. It might give people a fuller sense of the Ruby community
and
available resources.
That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time!
Charlie B.
http://www.recentrambles.com
Charlie B. wrote:
On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 03:36 +0900, James B. wrote:
that lacks even a link to the ruby homepage?
Agreed. It might give people a fuller sense of the Ruby community
and
available resources.That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time!
Charlie B.
http://www.recentrambles.com
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings. Probably it
would be a good idea to email any suggestions you have directly to him.
His email address is at the bottom of the web page.
On Jun 6, 2006, at 19:50, Tim H. wrote:
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings.
Probably it
would be a good idea to email any suggestions you have directly to
him.
His email address is at the bottom of the web page.
I’ve sent him a pointer and summary.
matthew smillie.
Tim H. wrote:
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings. …
Does anyone read all 4000 posts per month?
Cheers,
Dave
On 6/6/06, Dave B. [email protected] wrote:
Tim H. wrote:
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings. …
Does anyone read all 4000 posts per month?
I try. 
GMail makes it easier.
-austin
Austin Z. wrote:
On 6/6/06, Dave B. [email protected] wrote:
Tim H. wrote:
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings. …
Does anyone read all 4000 posts per month?I try.
I also try. 
I’d venture to say that nearly
every byte of it flashes before my eyes at
some point.
Of course, most of it I just skim.
Hal
Matthew S. wrote:
…
That said, I’m also of the view that the quality and tone of the
questions from ruby-forum often leave something to be desired.I have a hunch this is because google groups and mailing lists tend to
be used by people who already know what they’re looking for, and
already know where the docs live. I’d bet that a number of the people
posting from the forum are probably not aware of all the resources
available to them.
I read an article on someone’s site that critiqued Ruby form the view of
a PHP developer, and I got the strong sense that this person thought
Ruby and Rails were one and the same, and that Ruby Forum was the only
public forum.
People come to Ruby by a variety of vectors, but not all of them
encourage the Big Picture. So we end up with various subcultures and
communities, with assorted friction.
I think that it might be a better improvement to add links to standard
Ruby documentation (ruby-lang.org, online Pickaxe, ruby- doc.org,
Poignant Guide, et alia) on the forum pages - currently they only link
to other forums. I’m pretty firm in my belief that this would benefit
everyone involved. And I mean, really, what good is a ‘ruby forum’
that lacks even a link to the ruby homepage?
Agreed. It might give people a fuller sense of the Ruby community and
available resources.
–
James B.
“I often work by avoidance.”
- Brian Eno
On Jun 6, 2006, at 4:52 PM, Dave B. wrote:
Tim H. wrote:
I get the idea that Andreas S., the man behind ruby-forum, is
responsive but doesn’t always keep up with all the postings. …Does anyone read all 4000 posts per month?
I’m writing tools to read my mailing list traffic for me and tell me
what’s interesting. I get between 500 and 1000 mailing list mails
per day.
–
Eric H. - [email protected] - http://blog.segment7.net
This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant
From: Eric H. [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 3:34 AM
per day.
Sound exciting. What is the principle, on which your tool selects
“interesting” postings? By keywords?
V.
On Jun 6, 2006, at 5:55 PM, Victor S. wrote:
I’m writing tools to read my mailing list traffic for me and tell me
what’s interesting. I get between 500 and 1000 mailing list mails
per day.Sound exciting. What is the principle, on which your tool selects
“interesting” postings? By keywords?
I’ve written parts one and two:
http://seattlerb.rubyforge.org/IMAPCleanse/
I’m planning on using per-mailbox Bayesian analysis for phase three.
What’s interesting to me on this mailing list is not the same as
what’s interesting on FreeBSD-current.
–
Eric H. - [email protected] - http://blog.segment7.net
This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant
On Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 10:23:17AM +0900, Eric H. wrote:
My crontab and I attest. I love how the whole suite works together.
You set up
imap_cleanse and imap_flag just does its thing. Yummy slash legendary.
_why
Eric H. wrote:
I’m writing tools to read my mailing list traffic for me and tell me
what’s interesting. I get between 500 and 1000 mailing list mails per
day.
This reminds me of the “electric monk” of Douglas Adams. Just as
dishwashers wash dishes so we don’t have to, and VCRs watch TV
for us, the electric monk believes things on our behalf…
Now if you can only write software that will not only find the
interesting emails and read them, but post relevant replies… 
Hal