[Haskell] Swapping parameters and type classes

[Ian Lynagh]

On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 03:48:06PM +0100, Andrzej Jaworski wrote:
> Responding to Simon Peyton-Jones'  reminder that this is a low-bandwidth list I
> was obscure and commited a blunder.
> 
> This one and many other threads here are started undoubtedly by experts [sorry
> guys:-)] and coffee brake should work for them, but on numerous occasions
> threads here spawn beginner type questions. So, my thinking was that it is
> perhaps against the tide trying to stop them.
> Why not to make the list Haskell a first contact general practitioner? Then
> creating e.g. "Announcements & Challenge" or "Announcements & ask guru" list
> could take the best from "Haskell" but also would make it less front line and
> thus more elitist, which should imply the manner by itself.

I proposed renaming
    haskell@ -> haskell-announce@
    haskell-cafe@ -> haskell@
in http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2007-July/028719.html
but the only reply was
    There are very few inappropriate posts to the haskell@ list.
    I very much doubt that the list names are a problem.
in http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2007-July/028727.html
so I dropped it.

I've just quickly categorised the haskell@ posts from August to see what
the numbers are really like. The posts I've marked "off-topic" are ones
that, as far as I can see, are no more suited to haskell@ than most of
the messages that are sent to haskell-cafe at . Other peoples'
categorisations might vary, but I'd be surprised if they did
significantly.

http://urchin.earth.li/~ian/haskell-list-categorisation.txt

Of 68 messages, 52 were off-topic and 16 were on-topic, so about a 75-25
split. 5 of the off-topic messages were replies to on-topic messages, so
would probably have been off-topic regardless of the list name unless we
set the haskell-announce@ reply-to address to be haskell@ or moderated
haskell-announce at .

Of 28 threads, 13 were entirely off-topic while 15 were at least partly
on-topic, so about a 50-50 split. This is a much better ratio as it is
the chattier threads that tend to be off-topic, of course. There was
only 1 on-topic message that wasn't the start of a thread.

In response to
    I very much doubt that the list names are a problem.
I fully understand why someone new to the community, and thus unfamiliar
with the lists' intended purposes, posted
    http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell/2007-August/019746.html
to a list called haskell@, but I'm sure they wouldn't have posted it to
haskell-announce at .

Something I noticed is that, of the 15 on-topic threads, 9 (including
"The Monad.Reader") were things like calls for papers and conference
announcements, which have a largely different audience than new-library
announcements. Maybe there's even an argument for splitting
haskell-announce in two? haskell-academic-announce?

> You could always
> cross-post but subscribe or answer to one.

Cross-posting to mailing lists doesn't work well, and there's really no
reason for haskell-cafe@ subscribers not to be subscribed to haskell@,
so you might as well only post to haskell@ if you think it should be
crossposted.


Thanks
Ian