freenode vs. oftc

[Steve Gordon]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Karsten 'quaid' Wade" <kwade at redhat.com>
> To: arch at ovirt.org
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 1:05:56 PM
> Subject: Re: freenode vs. oftc
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> On 03/13/2012 09:21 AM, Steve Gordon wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Usually this is done by registering the channel, and setting it up
> > to kick everyone who joins with a kick message indicating where to
> > go/what to do. If you leave any possibility for joining/lurking
> > you end up with two communities for active discussion which in my
> > opinion is far worse that just happening to be on a 'less popular'
> > network.
> 
> As it happens, this is what was done with #ovirt on Freenode.
> 
> Despite the clear message, though, people have approached me
> wondering
> why they are "banned" from #ovirt.

Then that is the way it should have remained. Are people who ignore an explicit kick message any more likely to join in the correct place if they are permitted to join the channel and it's in the topic or they asked to? If we absolutely must have it open to allow people to join (and again, I can't see why) then set it to moderated (+m) and put a bot in there to tell people off periodically.

> Anyway, in the process of getting permissions so we can actually
> control that channel, we removed the kickban. The /topic now says to
> go to OFTC, etc., and there is zero discussion on the Freenode
> channel.
> 
> So the consensus of this list seems to be, "Leave things as they
> are,"
> and in this case it seems to be better that the channel is populated
> but quiet.

Well except, "As they are" had already been changed.

> Let's go ahead and move discussions that start on Freenode to OFTC
> wherever possible.

That doesn't really address the concern that people will just end up having splintered discussions in both places. After all your suggestion in the previous mail was for us to join in *both* places to move people on. How is that an improvement?

I know this is quickly turning into a bikeshed post, but from my point of view we have taken this from what should have been a fairly simple problem (choose a network) and found the one solution which is even worse (both).

Steve