[arch-general] Mailing list closed for 24 hours

[Øyvind Heggstad]

On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:19:31 +0200
Tobias Frilling <tobias at frilling-online.de> wrote:

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> On 09/27/2012 12:43 PM, Allan McRae wrote:
> > And we are back...
> 
> Sir, you've got some yarbles.
> IMHO the cause of all these flaming is that arch-general is too,
> well, general. What about if we would split this list up into a list
> for technical questions (e.g. arch-support) and a more philosophical,
> rambling one (e.g. arch-discussion), so that everyone could choose
> his/her own poison?
> 
> P.S.: This is definitely a help request to make the make the arch
> mailing lists a happy place again ;-)
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Imo it's not a problem that arch-general has a wide topic. You have to
remember that it actually worked well for years, it's really only in the
last 6-12 months or so that arch-general have really started to go
downhill.

Here is how it goes (in my eyes)

1) community is small, S/N ratio is awesome, discussions are generally
"friendly"

2) community starts growing fast, and brings with it a lower S/N ratio

3) more flame-wars etc starts to happen, causing some of the "good"
people to leave. S/N ratio gets even worse.

4) almost none of the devs nor old-timers and the more
friendly/knowledgeable
people are left. S/N goes to hell, bad press happens because of it,
just increasing the downward spiral.


I can only see two things that can really help slow down/stop/revert the
spiral: 

1) Moderation. Get rid of the serial trollers/flamers
2) Get more devs and "good" people to join and be active.

Where the second point probably is the most important.