[Search-l] Communication

[Rainer Blome]

Hi.

Several users have expressed frustration concerning a perceived lack of 
attention and activity from the project members.  I feel the same, but 
have so far managed to keep my emotions in check, mostly.  We hope that 
there are things going on behind the scenes.  In the interest of 
transparency and community, the project should be more communicative.

Currently, the discussion is heavily fragmented.  There are a handful of 
mailing lists, the individual forum entries, user pages, user talk 
pages, policy discussion pages, bug reports, etc. etc. (and there's a 
chat, too, we hear).

The mailing lists are special. Compared to wiki discussion, they are not 
easier to read, and harder to discuss on.  In the wiki, discussion 
results are much easier to harvest (all on one page).

Ordinary wiki users are often not mailing list users.  They expect at 
first that project members read and reply to forum posts.  This is 
usually not the case, contrary to the custom for many (I'd say most) 
projects with web-based forums.

To improve communication, I would like to ask that whenever you have the 
chance, prefer to use an appropriate wiki page to discuss.

Rainer