Re: [Caml-list] how to encourage adoption of OCaml?

[Duane Johnson <duane.johnson@gmail.com>]

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On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Fabrice Le Fessant <
Fabrice.Le_fessant@inria.fr> wrote:

> Anyway, I am not fond of the multiplication of communication channels,
> they tend to divide an already small community into smaller groups, and it
> becomes hard to remain up-to-date with latest information. For example, a
> lot of discussions are now happening on Github pull-requests, either in
> ocaml/ocaml or ocaml/opam-repository, and if you don't keep an eye on them,
> you might soon discover that important decisions have been taken without
> most of the community knowing it.


When Twitter first came out, I wondered how I was supposed to read
everything in my stream because I couldn't always tell where I'd left off
last time. Then I learned some people followed *hundreds* of other twitter
users (at that time I had only started following a handful) and I realized
something different was going on--this wasn't a medium where I could drink
in every tweet, it was a firehose and I could come get splashed here and
there when I wanted to :)

I think there's a place for less consequential announcements and
discussions in a community--especially a large one. Important information
will almost always reach critical mass and the network will distribute it
to every leaf node. A mailing list is a good solid place for discussion,
and every incoming message can be addressed up to a certain threshold--but
when it gets too popular, even the long-time participants start to complain
that there's too much noise.

When the Haskell mailing list experienced this kind of growth, there was
someone in the community who took it upon themselves to summarize the
important announcements, events, and projects that had taken place in the
past week. People could be assured that even if they weren't personally
reading each of 100 messages per day, there was still a way to be apprised
of the headline events.

Perhaps someone could do the same, as a bridge between the github and
caml-list groups.

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