[Sugar-devel] Proposing a communication switch

[D. Joe]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 07:37:03AM +1100, James Cameron wrote:

> Slack and Matrix are also popular.

Since it is several links deep now, I'll surface this point I made in
similar discussions elsewhere, for Sumit's benefit:

"Every other option shares IRC's marked disadvantage of not being somebody
else's favorite thing that a ton of projects use."

Which is to say, why not Gitter? Because it's not Slack. Why not Slack?
Because it's not Discord. Why not Discord? Because it's not Gitter. And
round and round we go, expanding this ring to include as many chat systems
as you can think of.

See also previous discussion here:

http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2017-September/054825.html

and here:

https://github.com/hylang/hy/issues/1357#issuecomment-331543249

(that latter link is included in the former, too, but as with the quote from
it, I'm unburying it)

> Gitter has an IRC bridge; does it go both ways?

This is a great question. Chances are, even if so, not very well.

I have reluctantly acceded, in some situations, to the establishment of
bridges between IRC channels and various other, newer, chat systems, mostly
as a way of possibly helping bring in people already using those chat
systems.  I say reluctantly, though, because I do not wish to encourage the
adoption of those proprietary systems, first, and second, because the
bridges rarely work well.

My approach is that, if someone wants to try to make one of those bridges
work, and is willing to put in the time and attention to do it, then I'm OK
with it. That said "putting in the time and attention to do it" requires a
level of commitment to making it work and keeping it working we'd probably
rather see devoted to other things. But if that's what one wishes to do ...
<*shrug*>.

This comes up often enough I have an essay draft sitting around about it
all. For now, I'll just add this one new link I have to give some academic
context to this discussion:

https://flosshub.org/content/considering-use-walled-gardens-floss-project-communication

-- 
D. Joe