Proposal 1 was implemented and dev was split off into talk and dev. See MailingLists for more details.

Why?

As subscribers of the dev mailing list know there has been significant mail discussing if and how the dev mailling list should split recently. This page is for members to propose split methods. Hopefully once the proposals have been discussed and finalised someone will initiate a vote to decide the future of the dev list.

• Feel free to reorganize the subcategories into something more logical if you need to, but try to keep it hierarchical. -RichardLotz

Proposal 1 (talk, dev)

Split dev into two lists. dev should be limited to purposeful technical discussion for developing SeattleWireless while talk should catch more of the general traffic.

Breakdown

• talk @ seattlewireless General free-form discussion, no rules though hopefully it will remain related to wireless networks in some way. This should act as a filter for the dev list.
• dev @ seattlewireless Restrict to only purposeful development discussion, limit news postings and general newbie questions.

Comments

• I think two lists won't address the people who won't subscribe to the dev list due to overly general deveopment discussion. It seems that some people would like a dev list with a hardware focus and a second with a software or more general policy/infrastructure discussion.

-RichardLotz

I think having a dev mailing list split into two subdivisions is the ideal set-up for the split of the dev list.We just need one email list to handle the "talk" and the other to handle more specific, goal-oriented topics and issues directly related to wireless network development in SWN. I do not think this is the place for links. As previously suggested, I think these links should be posted by wiki on this website. -ElizabethSmith

Proposal 2 (talk, hw-dev, dev)

I suggest the dev list be split into two new lists, with the scope of the original dev list narrowed. Three lists should encourage those people (I know of at least one) who do not subscribe to the dev list because they feel it is too hardware oriented while keeping topics broad enough such that confusion over which list to post to remains minimal. Talk on the development lists should remain purposeful towards the goals of SeattleWireless.

• -RichardLotz

Breakdown

• talk @ seattlewireless Designed for general and newbie discussion. talk is a free-form list for such topics as news, why we're building the network, new user questions (which wireless card?), product deals, and what everelse our community deam pertinent.
• hw-dev @ seattlewireless

  Designed for topics on RF, SingleBoardComputer, PoE, AntennaBuilding, AntennaMasts, OpticalNetworking, HardwareHacking.

• dev @ seattlewireless Designed as a development catch all. Should include topics that aren't clearly hardware or rf oriented, such as routing, DNS, network services, network infrastructure (IBSS, BSS mode) mapping software developement, etc.

Comments

• I'm not sure how well this would work. I think we'll get some folks who only subscribe to one or the other lists, and we'll end up with crossposts & 'redirect your message here' type messages CC'd to the respective lists. EricJohanson

  I think having three lists is unncessary. Two is enough, three is a crowd. -ElizabethSmith

Proposal 3 (dev, nodeadmin, support)

Breakdown

• dev @ seattlewireless General free-form discussion, no rules though hopefully it will remain related to wireless networks in some way.
• nodeadmin @ seattlewireless Restrict to only 'node status' administrative email. 'bob will have his node down for 2 weeks', or "What's that uber tape for sealing antenna connectors?"; limit broad postings that may be of interest to 'dev' and general newbie questions.
• support @ seattlewireless If you need to know what driver to use, card to purchase, or you can't get linux loaded on your rg1000, ask here.

Comments

• I like the idea of a nodeadmin list; I find myself sending offline email to other admins; I think a more public forum would be helpful to 'would be admins' or folks currently building nodes to be on this list. I don't want it to turn into a elite support list, however. That's what support @ seattlewireless is for. -EricJohanson

  • I think nodeadmin discussion was exactly what I had suggested to remain part of the original dev list. I think it should stay there. Simplicity is a virtue. To EricJ: Saying developers and users don't care about operational issues is generalistic and is comparable to saying for example that mechanical engineers who designed a bridge and drivers on it would not care if it fell apart. -ElizabethSmith

    • But 'developers' & 'users' Don't care about operational issues. -EricJohanson

      Elizabeth: No, Saying users don't care about operational issues is like saying drivers don't care how an engineer designs a bridge. That is true, unless the bridge is falling down while you are driving on it (the network stops working while you are using it). Users don't care about operations by definition. If they do care then they are wanting to be more than just users. - TomO'Hern

OT Comments

I've heard rumors of the 'support' list. But, not being a member, I don't know if it really gets used. Members of the dev list see questions all the time; I think this is excessive, and we should encourage folks to redirect their question to the 'support' list, and not bug us 'hard working developers'. I think I'll go and signup to the support list, and help field any questions that may get posted there. -EricJohanson

• Its a very quiet list, mostly used for the occasional PublicRelations discussion. I believe MattWestervelt originally set it up to feild questions from users of the network who are experiencing problems with a node or connectivity in general. It would be an appropriate place for the common support questions if the dev list could enforce it sufficiently. Perhaps answers to support questions posted to dev could be cc'd to support with a suggestion to ask their in the future? -RichardLotz

There are currently 126 people on the support list. It was originally set up in September 2000 with the Mailing List Breakup Proposal

3. support is for stickers, arguments of structure, and general support work.

It's been relatively low traffic. It has stayed somewhat on topic and has been geared towards PropagandaTeam efforts. Arguments of structure, and general support (in this case, support of the wireless networking cause, not technical support) have tended to stay on the dev list.

I dont think there has ever been a tech support question fielded on the support list.

--MattWestervelt

CategoryProposal