ottonomy / openbadges-discussion

A no-code repository for having discussions related to the general technical issues of openbadges.

Open Badges Development Discussion

This is an issues-only repository for having conversations about general openbadges development.

Why not a mailing list?

So we do have a mailing list but it doesn't get a lot of action on it. Since it's so low-volume right now, I think this is a good opportunity to move the discussion over to this issues repository.

mailing list positives/issues repo negatives

1. Only need an email address to contribute to discussion. GH Issues requires github account (though anyone hoping to contribute to any of our codebases will need one anyway
2. Moderation. Users can be kicked out of the group if they are bad actors. We haven't had this issue (yet), and hopefully github will introduce moderation/muting to issues soon.

mailing list negatives/issues repo positives

1. Threading/topics can suck on mailing list. Issues repo solves that by having a topic that can be edited to reflect the current state of a specific conversation.
2. Non-editable comments/messages. Once you sent an email, it's sent, and if a correction needs to be made, that's another email.
3. When a discussion leads to an issue, conversation takes place in multiple locations. With an issues repo, the issue can be tied to the work that needs to be done (even cross-repository)
4. Hard to embed code with proper syntax highlighting in email.
5. The “too much email” problem. Some people may only care about specific issues, and with an issue repository users can “subscribe” to specific issues by raising/commenting on them (and even then choose whether to get email updates or not). If a user does care about everything going on, she can choose to “Watch” the repository and get updated on everything.

Another pro to the issues repo is that it can (sort of) work as a mailing list – people don't necessarily need to sign into the github interface to comment since issues can be replied to via email. Creating a new topic will require signing in, though.

All told, I think an issues repository provides a richer interface for having development-related conversations about the project and provides a better path for keeping track of ideas as they turn into code.