[Caml-list] Change policy on beginners list?

[Marshall <marshall@logical.net>]

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I’m an OCaml beginner, so you would think that I would find the OCaml beginners’ list helpful.  However, every interaction I have with Yahoo groups just pushes me away.  There are obnoxious ads in the web interface, which is not very intuitive anyway.  I could use the beginners list/group via email, but that would require using my Yahoo email address, which I don’t have set up on any of my mail clients.  When I go into the Yahoo web mail interface, I mainly see a list of junk mail that I don’t care about, so I don’t want to use the Yahoo address.  More than once, I have thought, “I should use the OCaml beginners’ list.”  When I start to go down that path, I stop.  Yahoo groups are too distasteful.  I’m not sure how many other people feel this way, but surely I’m not alone.  That means that for some new OCaml users, the public face of OCaml support pushes us away.  So sending new users to the Yahoo group seems unhelpful to the growth of OCaml.

I personally find Google groups easier to use.  They’re not perfect, but the web interface doesn’t include ads.  Might it be a good thing to move the beginners’ list to Google groups or some other system?  Obviously, this change should not be done suddenly.  There would have to be period—possibly indefinite—during which both lists were available.

(At present, when I want help on OCaml questions, I go to StackOverflow, where people have been very helpful.  This is a good solution for me, and it’s easy to browse the latest OCaml questions.  However, the way that the ocaml.org community page is set up encourages beginners to use the Yahoo group.  There is a StackOverflow icon down at the bottom of the page, but you have to investigate that on your own.  In any event, I do like the idea of using an online group or mailing list focused on beginners questions, so I personally would welcome a beginners Google group.  I don’t expect to use the Yahoo group.)


Marshall Abrams

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