From: Lukas Kahwe Smith <smith@pooteeweet.org>
Subject: Re: [pgsql-www] Developer's Wiki
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:49:29 +0200
Organization: Hub.Org Networking Services
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To: Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>
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To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org

Andrew Dunstan wrote:

> Being slightly more abstract, we are grappling with a couple of 
> different kinds of objects here: discussions and decisions. The mailing 
> list is a very good way of having a discussion, and a wiki is IMNSHO a 
> poor substitute. Ditto, bulletin board, web forum, blog .....  The 
> reason is simply that with a mailing list all you need is a subscription 
> to get the info delivered to you in a medium everybody uses. It's push, 
> not pull, and that's very appealing. Any other mechanism requires the 
> user to seek the location of the discussion actively to some degree. 
> Conversely, the very unstructured nature of the mailing list(s) makes 
> them a poor medium for capturing decisions. That's why some of us have 
> advocated use of a tracker to capture decisions about development 
> directions, because the TODO list doesn't seem appropriate. But an open 
> wiki would be a horrible substitute for the TODO list - it would turn it 
> from a list that reflects at least some discussion and consensus into a 
> mere wish list of no authority whatsoever. IOW, it is the exact opposite 
> of the direction I believe we should be headed.

I agree pretty much. However I disagree that a wiki is not useful to 
summarize discussion from the mailinglist. All that it needs is people 
that are humble and do not push their own agendas. If necessary they 
should discuss their summaries with members of both/all sides of a given 
discussion and with members of the core group.

regards,
Lukas