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

[Fabrice Le Fessant <Fabrice.Le_fessant@inria.fr>]

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Yes, OCaml is an old programming language... It was still using SVN until
last year :-)

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.

For the mailing-list, I think that hosting it on ocaml.org would be better,
with a simple name like "ocaml-users@ocaml.org <list@ocaml.org>", that
would be an alias for "ocaml-users@lists.ocaml.org <ocaml@lists.ocaml.org>".
I have no time to go on IRC, so I don't really care about it, but I think
that we miss something in the middle between mailing-lists and IRC, which
is a forum that would be hosted on ocaml.org (ocaml.org/forum ?). I used to
go on some BB forums at some point, I am pretty sure we could use something
like that, or one of its more recent clones (but not a proprietary
website). Such forums are quite practical, as you can both monitor them to
answer questions immediately (à la IRC) without filling your inbox, and
still be able to come from time to time and look at former discussions.

--Fabrice


On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 11:57 PM SP <sp@orbitalfox.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 09:16:09AM -0600, Duane Johnson wrote:
> >- my first impression of OCaml community was through reddit.com/r/ocaml.
> [..]
> >- next, I tried to find a google group. [..]
> >- signing up for a mailing list is slow and unrewarding. I'd much rather
> >sign up for a more modern community technology like reddit, facebook,
> >slack, or google groups.
>
> Those are very noisy environments and rather unpractical mediums. I use
> reddit to kill time not be productive. Sure exposure there might pull
> more wondering people. I get the impression that is hardly on anyone's
> top list here.
>
> >- I looked for a chat community, and IRC is the only option. This signals
> >"old tech community" to me. Slack or gitter.im is a more inclusive,
> modern
> >community. In order to participate in IRC, one must always be connected.
>
> Understood and appreciated. But the merrits of IRC and the mailing list
> are still there. Give them some time to see them. Less glitter, but more
> distributed and more accessible for people taking this seriously. Slack
> and Gitter are proprietary systems... Just sharing with you the
> perspective from the other side. Look past the chrome.
>
> --
>     SP
>
> --
> Caml-list mailing list.  Subscription management and archives:
> https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs
>

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