Re: Org ML integration with an existing Discourse instance (was: IM dev discussions?)

[Ihor Radchenko]

Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> writes:

> Given that Discourse is open source and free (in GNU sense being GPL
> v2), perhaps a better approach would be to try and get the FSF to host a
> Discourse server from GNU projects (not just org). This would be in
> addition to the mail lists hosting currently provided.

I think that it is premature to talk about this just yet.
As I stated in the subject, I am more interested in ML-Discourse
integration possibility. Preferably with an existing Discourse instance.

We can indeed have a community Discourse (hosted by FSF or some other
means). But it will not help with current fragmentation of the Org
community. Not adding yet another place for discussion.

> I think Discourse is an interesting take on things and I can see how it
> could be beneficial to org mode, but we need to be realistic about the
> costs and resources needed. We have to have a reasonable confidence
> regrading long-term viability (i.e. our ability to administer and
> resource the service). I think it would be a mistake to rely on a 3rd
> party provider unless we have high confidence that 3rd party will be
> able to resource and maintain a server over the long term.

I envision Org ML being a central hub of the Org community with ability
to access its portions from other platforms (like Discourse). Individual
platforms may or may not include the whole message traffic from Org ML.
The key point is making it easy to share Org core-related questions with
Org ML without compromising accessibility ML provides.

A number of people prefer using shiny new platforms these days. If those
platforms can be transparently connected to Org ML, we do not need to
worry about new trendy things dying out over a couple of years. Org ML
will still remain and record the relevant discussions in public inbox.
Yet, people who are cringy about using email will be able to communicate
with the core Org community.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at https://orgmode.org/.
Support Org development at https://liberapay.com/org-mode,
or support my work at https://liberapay.com/yantar92