Re: What about an announce-only mailing list?

[Björn Fischer]

Gervase Lam wrote:

> > From: Michele Alessandrini
> > Subject: What about an announce-only mailing list?
> > Date: Saturday 17 April 2004 00:33 a
> >
> > Hi,
> > I'm a Pingus fan (I already had the occasion to express my apprecation
> > for your absolutely wonderful game) and I'm subscribed to the list to be
> > informed about new development.
> > Anyway, this list brings really too much mail for people not directly
> > involved in development. Why not consider the option of a low-traffic
> > list with only announce (new releases, new levels, bug fixes, etc)? A
> > not repliable one would be even better...
> >    
>
> So, is it worth re-instating an announce list?  New releases of Pingus 
> do not happen often.  With the Web level comment tool/database that is 
> being developed right now, I think using the announce list for new levels 
> would be almost pointless.
>
>  

well, who can say which of the 150 levels in the playable section of the 
LCT is new? They are being sorted alphabetically...
I think it would be possible to make an announce list, and to make the 
LCT send a mail to this list anytime a new level is detected.

> The only thing left would be bug fixes.  I suppose that as soon as a patch 
> is committed to the source code control system, may be an e-mail should be 
> sent to the announce list saying that a patch has been "applied."
>  

isn't that just what the pingus-cvs list does? And I think this is only 
interesting for developers and also too high frequented for users.

> So, in conclusion, I think people who are on the announce list would most 
> likely have the source code on their computers, which means that they are 
> most likely to be on the development list.  Any on the announce list who 
> just want a binary would probably unsubscribe anyway because announcements 
> of new releases only come once in a blue moon.
>  

I think that's what Michele wanted. For users (and I mean binary-only 
users) it is hard to make them remember to check the website frequently 
for updates. And even if someone wants to check - let's say - once a 
month, he probably will do it once or twice and then forget about it. 
But if he was subscribed to such mailing list he would be reminded twice 
a year (or less :-) that there is a new pingus version out. I think 
that's really useful.

Greetings

Björn