[ripe-list] The Future of Discussion Lists

> On 26 May 2023, at 08:41, Leo Vegoda <leo at vegoda.org> wrote:
> 
> - Am I wrong? Are e-mail discussion lists a sustainable communication
> channel for the foreseeable future?

Yes and yes. IMO.

> - Are e-mail discussion lists an acceptable technology to people
> joining the industry?

Yes. IMO.

Email has the lowest barrier to entry and imposes no meaningful requirements on the end user other than an ability to type in English using the email client of their choice. There's no reliance on proprietary protocols or platforms. These key points need to be remembered.

In my view, chasing after the latest shiny here today, gone tomorrow fad would be unwise. [Once upon a time, myspace was a thing.] Or adopting some proprietary platform. Or ending up with a platform that gets assimilated by a tech behemoth or imposes limitations on community-generated content.

Some of us remember the Slideshare debacle ~15 years ago. The intention was to make stuff from RIPE meetings "more available" - for some definition of that term. However the company's T&Cs meant they asserted IPR on anything that was uploaded and you agreed to accept their spam.

Advocating change is all very well. But be careful what you wish for because you might just get it. And then find there are unintended and/or unforseen consequences.

It can be helpful to have discussions about from time to time topics like this. Periodic reviews are welcome and I support that. However I think these discussions need to be grounded in objective data: clear problem statement, requirements, use cases, etc. If not, we'll end up with a circular debate -- "My opinion is right", "No it's not." etc -- that goes nowhere.

We're engineers - allegedly. So let's define/agree a problem statement first so we can figure out what options could be used to fix whatever is broken.