[jsr-314-open] mailinglist: looking for immediate action

[Dan Allen]

Fellow EG members,

I'm going to continue to use this thread to discuss the mailinglist
arrangments. It turns out that broken mailinglist archives is a side effect
of an ongoing migration of this, and other, EG lists. Please read on (or
scroll to the very bottom for the CliffsNotes)

I spoke to Max Lanfranconi yesterday about the JSR-314 mailinglist. Max is
one of two admins in the JCP program management office (PMO) office. Max and
I discussed two issues:

1. The broken JSR-314-OPEN archives
2. The public mailinglist for community members

As I understand it, Max is aware that the web-based archive for JSR-314-OPEN
(at archives.java.sun.com) is not being updated. He assured me that the
messages are still being captured, they are just not propagating to the
site. The update script was shutdown *intentionally* when the new
jcp.orgsite went live in June. The reason it was shutdown is because
the plan was
(is) to deprecate the archive server we are on and move all list archives to
jcp.org.

Migrating off of JSR-314-OPEN is *imminent*, though I don't know exactly how
or when. *Just know that we are operating on a deprecated list*.

*So what replaces JSR-314-OPEN then?*

To answer that question requires some background first. jcp.org is offering
each EG three lists, which are actually forum/listserv hybrids:

> *jsr-xxx-eg* - A private list for expert group members only.

> *jsr-xxx-observers* - A semi-private list for expert group members and
invited guests. Invitated guests have to be added manually by the PMO admin.

> *jsr-xxx-public* - An open list for the community. The archives are
readable by all (including search engines). E-mail addresses registered with
the jcp.org website can post. Authenticated users can also post through the
website.

As I understand it, all three lists use the same software. *But, for some
reason, they function differently.* Both the eg and observers lists have
2-way synchronization between the web-based forum and e-mail. However, the
public list only lets e-mail in the door. It doesn't send e-mail out. Posts
must be read on the forum.

As it turns out, the second of our two requests, to have a read/write
community mailiinglist, is nearly answered! There is a community forum here:
http://wiki.jcp.org/boards/index.php?b=958. Here's the statement that the
PMO issued in their summer newsletter, which aligns very closely with our
request.

As you may have noticed, the JCP program office recently completed a major
> revision to the jcp.org web site. One of the changes was to introduce
> public discussion boards open to any registered user of jcp.org for each
> JSR. The forums are tied to mail aliases in the format of
> jsr-x-public at jcp.org; note that this board/alias replaces the jcp-comments
> aliases. You can find links to the discussion boards on each JSR page in the
> format of http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=x (x is the JSR number). There
> are also a variety of discussion boards for general topics here:
> http://wiki.jcp.org/boards/index.php
>

But there are three *showstoppers*:

1. Posts should be sent out via e-mail just like the other two lists. Why
the heck not?
2. My attempt to post via jsr-314-public at jcp.org *failed*
3. jsr-314-comments at jcp.org should be aliased to jsr-314-public at jcp.org

Now back to this question: *So what replaces JSR-314-OPEN then?
*
There are two issues here:

1. What happens to the current archives of JSR-314-OPEN?
2. What list do we use in the future?

Unless there are any objections here, Max has agreed to import all the
archives from March 09 until now into the jsr-314-public forum on Monday.
This will make them immediately accessible to the public and search engines.
We have the option of closing the replies on the threads. *I'm not sure what
the right answer is there.*

We can import the discussions into our list as well. Then, the two lists
will continue on their own paths.

That brings us to the second question, what is our list?

We certainly don't need both jsr-314-eg at jcp.org and
jsr-314-observers at jcp.org. And since we don't want a exclusively private
list, that leaves us with jsr-314-observers at jcp.org. It's not ideal, but we
could probably live with PMO manually adding invited members to this list
(to post). They claim that we are not restricted in who we choose to invite,
so at least the policy is correct.

However, the showstopper for jsr-314-observers at jcp is that the archives are
not public for reading.

We can adopt jsr-314-observers at jcp.org as soon as there is a public forum
for it on jcp.org. I'd like to get this resolved ASAP so we can get off this
list.

That concludes my update. I suspect there will be plenty of discussion to
follow. In summary, here are the action items for Max:

1. Posts to jsr-314-public at jcp.org should be sent out via e-mail.
2. Posting via jsr-314-public at jcp.org needs to be fixed
3. jsr-314-comments at jcp.org should be aliased to jsr-314-public at jcp.org
4. archives for jsr-314-observers at jcp.org needs to be publically accesable
5. JSR-314-OPEN archives should be imported into jsr-314-observers and
jsr-314-public

-Dan

--
Dan Allen
Senior Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action
Registered Linux User #231597

http://mojavelinux.com
http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction
http://www.google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen
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