Re: A Zine/Newsletter for ELPA

[Philip Kaludercic]

orzodk <orzodk@fastmail.com> writes:

> Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:
>
>> Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:
>>
>>> I have recently been thinking if creating a little monthly±n zine
>>> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine) or newsletter for {GNU,NonGNU} ELPA
>>> would be a nice idea.  Somewhere where new packages and releases can not
>>> only be announced but also commented on and "reviewed".  Perhaps also a
>>> place where people can post ideas for packages or where abandoned
>>> packages can find new maintainers.  Basically anything on the topic of
>>> Emacs packages, in one package.
>>>
>>> Starting and organising such a project doesn't sound easy, and I don't
>>> know if it is worth it to begin with.  I am wondering if anyone else
>>> things this is a good idea and would be interested in participating to
>>> initiate something more concrete?
>>
>> I'd like to bring this topic up again.  The first step would be to set
>> bounds and some time schedule.  The technical decisions should follow
>> from this.  My suggestion would be to publish a little article on either
>> a 1/2, 1 or 2-monthly basis*, with three regular sections:
>>
>> * New packages
>>
>>   Mentioning and introducing new packages that have been added to GNU
>>   and NonGNU ELPA.
>>
>> * Interesting Updates
>>
>>   Briefly listing packages that have some major changes that would make
>>   it worth taking a look at a package again.
>>
>> * Misc. Section
>>
>>   Other irregular points like people suggesting package ideas,
>>   co-maintainers needed for packages, news from Emacs/ELPA maintainers
>>   or anything else like that.
>>
>> I'd like to create a group on Sourcehut to manage the site and provide a
>> separate mailing list.  Ping me if interested.
>>
>> *: Perhaps it doesn't have to be periodic, and we would instead just
>>    release a new edition whenever we have enough to post?
>
> As far as scope goes I think it wouldn't be too hard scrape the
> Gnu/NonGnu package pages then compare what's changed since the last
> newsletter. There was even a blog post about scraping with org-mode[1] a
> few days ago (via irreal). (The frequency of the newsletter seems best
> based on how often interesting changes land in these packages.)

There wouldn't be any need to take that route, all the new packages are
documented in their respective repositories:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/elpa.git/log/?qt=grep&q=New
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/nongnu.git/log/?qt=grep&q=New

> So I think what you're asking is if there is interest in the
> review/commentary aspect of the newsletter? I'd be interested in
> following along on SourceHut (as I'm sure other fellow lurkers would be)
> but I can't say that I have any great insight to contribute. If it's
> just helping groking the CHANGELOG since the last version that's
> something I'm more capable of.

I don't think there are going to be great insights going on here.  My
plan would be to start a mailing list that contributors could sign up
onto, where new packages would be announced, and people could respond
with their comments, however brief or detailed, perhaps even in whatever
format (org, markdown, blog posts, video, etc.).  These would then be
collected into a article.

> As another note: Emanuel mentioned an Emacs newsletter would be an
> interseting idea as well but scope was a concern[2]. As a way to boot
> strap this whole process it might be worth while approaching some of the
> bloggers in the community to see if they'd be interested in writing
> "guest posts" or even giving you permission to "cross post" some of
> their older articles.

Hmm, do you have any concrete people in mind?

> Then issue #1 has the notes about ELPA packages plus an Emacs related
> article with links to SourceHut for those interested in
> contributing. This gets published and cross posted to
> reddit/planetemacs/sacha's newsletter/etc and you're off into the world
> of community building.  
>
> [1] 
> https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2023/Mar/solving-a-scraping-problem-with-emacs-and-org-mode/
> [2] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-tangents/2022-10/msg00007.html