## page was renamed from Alioth/MeetingMinutes/Mailinglists
= Mailinglists for collaborative package maintenance =
The following thoughts were exchanged during the [[Sprints/2017/Alioth|Alioth Sprint 2017]].

== Discussion summary ==
 * the most recent [[http://blog.snow-crash.org/blog/survey-about-alioth-replacement/|user survey]] showed wide interest for the mailinglists feature
 * currently there are 1384 lists on alioth
  * the most widely used list types:
   * 500 commits
   * 383 devel
   * 220 maintainers
   * 40 discuss
   * 35 users
   * 19 announce
   * 15 general
   * 10 bugs
  * the above list was compiled via: {{{
list_lists | sed 1d | awk '{print $1}' | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' | grep -- - | sed 's/^.*-//' \
    | sed 's/^user$/users/; s/^commit$/commits/; s/^dev$/devel/; s/^maint$/maintainers/; s/^changes$/commits/; s/^team$/maintainers/; s/^maintainer$/maintainers/; s/^vcs$/commits/; s/^cvs$/commits/; s/^cvslog/commits/; s/^scm$/commits/; s/^developers$/devel/; s/^pkgs$/packages/; s/^group$/maintainers/' \
    | sort | uniq -c | sort -n
}}}
  * the "commmits" list functionality is superseded by the notification feature of the new development platform
  * "bugs" lists are superseded by the issue tracker
  * the list types "devel", "maintainers", "discuss", "users", "announce" and "general" are probably acceptable for being hosted on lists.d.o service
 * we also contemplated to host a mailing list service that would be integrated in to the new development platform, but there were some objections:
  * mail-based services are a heavy maintenance burden (spam, IP blacklists, ...)
  * there is already a lists.d.o mailing list service within Debian, which would probably suffice for most of the above use cases (based on a quick assessment of the [[https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/HOWTO_start_list|lists.d.o requisites for new mailinglists]])


== Possible manual migration of Alioth mailing lists to lists.d.o ==

Listmasters are willing to have some more lists on lists.debian.org, but not all that are currently on alioth.

Lists may be granted on request based on the following requirements:
 * team discussion list would be OK
 * support lists maybe as well (ask for it)
 * commit lists are not OK (use the notification system) (1/3 of current lists)
 * aliases for maintainers are not OK (subscribe on tracker.d.o instead)
 * getting a new mailinglist: file a wishlist bug against lists.debian.org (https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/HOWTO_start_list.en.html)

New lists will have common list settings - open list, free subscription, open archives.

Every list owner needs to request a list manually. There will be no automatic migration.

We prepared a minimal export script for retrieving the mailing list archive and the subscriber list from alioth. These can be imported by the listmasters.


== Migration tasks ==
 * (./) prepare a howto (targetting current list-owners on alioth) for requesting a new mailinglist on lists.d.o and how to import the original mailinglist
 * discuss the above draft with list-master
 * (./) prepare a description (targetting users of the new development platform) for requesting a mailinglist on lists.d.o
 * bonus: embed/link this description in the new development platform
  * this could help to prevent requests "where the mailing list feature went"
  * encourage collaborative packaging teams to establish a communication channel