[FFmpeg-devel] Mailing List Delay

[Nicolas George]

ffmpegandmahanstreamer at lolcow.email (12021-07-14):
> I'm not against fixing the mailing list. No, not at all. It need to be
> fixed. But Google is big company and trying to figure out how to make their
> mail deliver successfully might be a problem.
> 
> I think this was the reasoning behind alot of the major open source projects
> switching to Nongnu.org and Google Groups along with Github discussions.
> IIRC even the Alliance of Open Media has their patch mailing list on
> Groups.io and Google Groups now. But I'm not saying FFMPEG should. Just
> saying that other projects have been facing similar issues and fixed it by
> moving to a large mailing list hub. And libvpx uses Google mail servers for
> their patches as well.

This discussion would be incomplete without reminding that Google and
these large actors have, under the excuse of fighting spam, unilaterally
changed the protocols they implement in ways that makes it harder for
small actors to stay in the game.

Therefore, the terms of the alternative are between choosing a solution
that is seamless even for the clueless but at the same time that enables
the monopolists and strengthen their position, or resisting the
monopolists and bearing a few technical hurdles for people who use their
services.

Since FFmpeg is a major Libre Software project, and one that is quite
technical at that, I think it should be obvious our side is the one of
freedom and against the monopolists.

Furthermore, FFmpeg has some importance for Google itself, which could
give us weight in asking they fix their shit if they want their users to
be able to contribute without hassle. That would benefit all projects
who want to self-host their mailing-lists.

Also, it is worth remembering that if lkml can self-host, so should we.

And, in the wake of the GitHub Copilot scandal, I think it is pretty
obvious we should definitely not choose solutions that are under
singular private control.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George
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