Mailing lists for specification of enhanced metadata in Java SE 8

[Alex Buckley]

Hi Neil,

On 7/24/2012 9:23 AM, Neil Richards wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> Once created, will these mailing lists appear (for subscription) on
> mail.openjdk.java.net, alongside the other (existing) lists ?

Yes.

The only reason there are two lists is to stop people from subscribing 
to -experts and diverting the experts' discussion. This is a non-trivial 
problem wherever Java language design is involved. I realize it's not 
the friendliest thing in the world.

> Is your intent that (the traffic on) both mailing lists are publicly
> archived, or is -experts traffic to be more "closed".

Both lists are publicly archived. There are no secrets on -experts. 
-observers is simply the mechanism by which -experts is followed if you 
want an email record. If you want to read on the Web, just visit the 
-experts archive.

> Would you expect the experts to subscribe to both lists, so they can
> see/respond to discussion in -observers ?

There is no expectation that members of -experts follow -observers. This 
is analogous to the pair of lists for the SE 8 Expert Group.

> Would you expect interested observers to subscribe to both lists, so
> they can see the pronouncements of the experts in -experts ?

Interested parties can't subscribe to -experts; that's the point. If 
they want an email record, they subscribe to -observers, which receives 
a copy of everything on -experts.

> Do you expect the traffic on -experts to be moderated, whilst that on
> -observers is unmoderated ?'

Yes.

> I'm trying to understand the working distinction between these two
> lists, so I understand (as an interested observer) how I should interact
> with them.

You effectively cannot interact with -experts. In email, you can only 
see its traffic via -observers, which you can comment too.

Since sending out my proposal, I have been wondering whether it's 
simpler to forget all about it and instead have a single 
enhanced-metadata-spec-discuss list. Anyone could join and read and post 
and leave as they wished. There would be no moderation. Posters would 
still need to sign the OCA before making material contributions. I don't 
know whether drive-by contributions from non-OCA signatories on a list 
populated by mainly OCA signatories will raise legal issues. Comments?

Alex