[Biopython] suggestion: moving to the discussion list to Google groups

[Istvan Albert]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Hilmar Lapp <hlapp at drycafe.net> wrote:

> Groups down, or to make it a paid subscription service, or if Google goes
> out of business?

>  Economies do go through cycles. Would it be OK to lose the entire
> archive of the mailing list in such an event?

Every choice has two sides. Has a positive and has negative dimension
to it. I am sure one can come up with  unlikely yet equally
pessimistic scenarios for the existing setup as well.

One thing is seems clear to me and I do not think that you are aware
of it. This mailman setup is a throttle - it imposes a negative
feedback on the amount of messages that it can handle.

This system of messages cannot grow over a certain limit. Just imagine
regularly getting a dozen new emails a day plus their followups, yet
you are just a casual user.

This would be unbearable for many people whose inboxes are already
overflowing. So they either don't participate or once they get even a
few of these messages they turn off email delivery at which point you
are left with a rudimentary site where it is hard to contribute so it
drops off their radar.

I can't even imagine what it would look like to have a popular
newsgroup being delivered to my mailbox. In a nutshell you are saying
it already works - but that is only because you get so few messages
... and getting more becomes actually inconvenient to the point at
which it has to decay again to the manageable level

Istvan

-- 
Istvan Albert
http://www.personal.psu.edu/iua1