Hi everyone, I recently had some discussions with Dscho about whether it is a better idea to use GitHub for development instead of email [0]. His argument was that GitHub makes it easier for newcomers to contribute, since more people are familiar with GitHub compared to mailing lists. Also, it is somewhat difficult to set up an email-based workflow. A pretty good argument. Using GitHub would certainly make one-off contributions easier, and make it easier for newcomers to get involved. But I feel like it is equally important to know what is good for the long-term contributors. Since I've been involved with git-gui for a relatively short time, I don't know many long term active contributors. Those I know of are in Cc. These are people who have frequently or semi-frequently expressed interest in git-gui development. Of course, people not in Cc are also welcome to express their opinions, and if I forgot to put someone in there that I should have, my apologies. I want to know people's opinion on whether it is a good idea to move development to GitHub. Just to lay out my views on the subject, here's a list of advantages and disadvantages that I can come up with. Arguments in favor of moving to GitHub: - Easier for new and one-off contributors. - Potentially easier for existing contributors. A lot of people are already very comfortable with GitHub's workflow. - The "Issues" section can serve as an issue tracker. Right now, my "issue tracker" is my memory and a small text file I have on my disk. - Rich text capabilities. I'm generally not a big fan of rich text, but Markdown IMO has found a pretty good balance. Also, it would allow people to post images, which is nice since it is a GUI (IIRC, the mailing list strips attachments). - We reduce the noise on the Git list. Most people subscribed to the list probably don't care about git-gui. So all git-gui related emails are essentially noise for them. And while the volume has been relatively low, it is not negligible. Arguments against moving to GitHub: - We lose the audience that we have on the mailing list. Every now and then, people who are interested in Git, and not really in git-gui chime in with help and suggestions. Those people are likely to not want to follow the repo on GitHub, so we lose that insight. One example that comes to my mind would be Denton Liu chiming in to help with some commits that were missing from my tree. - We depend on a non-open proprietary platform. While I personally don't really care that much, some people might. But the truth remains that it is a closed platform that I or any other contributor has no control over. If GitHub decides to ban me or any other contributor tomorrow, we can do nothing about it. This might sound far-fetched, but it has happened recently [1]. This specific case did not touch public repos, but this can change in the future. Something like this is less likely to happen to the Git mailing list and email. - People are restricted to the workflow prescribed by GitHub. With email, there is a certain degree of flexibility/customizability with how you sort your mail, how you configure your mail client, etc. - Sub-threads are not supported. Each reply is only to the "main" thread, and you can't reply to a reply (like you can do in email). It is a minor thing, but worth a mention IMHO. This list is not meant to be exhaustive in any way. The intention is to start listing out the benefits and losses so we can make an informed decision. Please feel free to add to this list (or remove from it). [0] https://public-inbox.org/git/nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1910061054470.46@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/29/8934694/github-us-trade-sanctions-developers-restricted-crimea-cuba-iran-north-korea-syria -- Regards, Pratyush Yadav
