[Sugar-devel] Proposal to move communication to other platform

[Bottersnike]

I think one of the main issues with IRC is the onboarding experience, or
rather lack thereof. For new users, they're faced with an entirely blank
screen, with no trivial way to search for past questions, see if a topic
has been brought up before, or even just read through history to get a
general idea of the way the organization operates. Sure, there may be
archives maintained, but for someone who has just discovered SugarLabs and
wants to contribute, that really isn't going to be a viable solution,
because it takes significant effort to hunt them down and search through
them. For established teams, this isn't much of an issue, but it can make
SugarLabs an incredibly daunting organization for young students from, say
GCI, or people looking around at different organizations for GSoC.

> I use Quassel, as it keeps backlog.

Most clients keep a backlog, but only if your computer is on. That's not
the situation 24/7 for a lot of people.

(Sorry for the double message, James. I accidentally used Reply not Reply
All)

On Wed, Mar 4, 2020 at 7:15 PM James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:

> Thanks for asking.
>
> For real-time presence messaging, please use IRC channel #sugar on
> freenode.net.  Your choice of client.  I use Quassel, as it keeps
> backlog.
>
> For store and forward messaging, please use the mailing list.  Your
> choice of client.
>
> You'll get a voice on choice of tools once you've been working with us
> for a few months.  Until then we can't trust that you've assessed the
> situation accurately.
>
> Gitter.im was yet another attempt to split our community into the
> haves and the have-nots.  I'm almost ready to ditch my account there
> because it has way less benefit than the cost.  Of receiving a mail
> notification, logging in, and answering the same old questions.  It is
> quite boring.  You can see that if you look through the previous
> discussion, which you'll find was entirely sporadic; someone
> has a question, I answer, nothing else happens.  It could have been
> done in mail.  It costs so much memory and screen real-estate that I
> can't see myself staying connected.  I certainly don't want it
> promoted for Sugar Labs, but I'm willing to keep it available in case
> it turns out to be useful for working with anyone who can't figure out
> how to use IRC.  We must allow for the possibility that someone with a
> disability has been given access to Gitter.im but not to IRC.  So a
> matter of inclusiveness, but not emphasis.
>
> On Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 08:03:31PM +0530, Prashant Sengar wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am sure this request must have been raised earlier as well. I wanted
> to ask
> > if Sugar could create a communication channel on another platform such
> as a
> > discord server, Slack or Telegram instead of IRC to make communication
> easier.
> >
> > The reason why others will be a better option:
> > 1. The chats will be accessible even if I am offline for a while, unlike
> IRC
> > where I cannot see any earlier data.
> > 2. IRC cannot be used on mobile devices, so it creates a barrier in
> > communication. On the other hand, the other chat applications are
> available on
> > all platforms for everyone to use.
> >
> > I would like to request the team to please consider this request. If such
> > request has been made earlier and denied due to some reasons, then I
> would like
> > to know them so that I can understand the reasons and work accordingly.
> >
> > Regards.
> > Prashant Sengar
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>
> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.netrek.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
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