Published on: 2019-08-02T11:43:27+00:00
During a recent bitcoin-dev email thread, concerns were raised about the slow moderation process for the mailing list. Emil Engler expressed frustration that it takes more than 24 hours for an email to be approved and posted on the list. The current strategy of having moderators in different time zones to cover sleep shifts or disruptions has not been effective. To address this issue, Jonas Schnelli suggested adding more moderators to reduce the lag in moderation and make debates less cumbersome.Engler also proposed a solution where people who have previously contributed emails to the mailing list would not require approval for future emails. The idea is that the number of previous emails, denoted as "n," would determine whether approval is needed. However, it is unclear if this feature already exists or if it needs to be implemented.One challenge that has been identified is an active software vulnerability that requires moderation to be enabled. Additionally, the current version of mailman, the software used for managing the mailing list, is unmaintained. This lack of maintenance has resulted in downtime and missing emails that never reached the moderation queue.The Linux Foundation, which oversees the bitcoin-core-dev IRC meeting, is migrating away from or abandoning the email protocol. As a result, they are becoming less willing to provide backend infrastructure support. This lack of support has contributed to the issues with the moderation process.Despite these challenges with email as a protocol, Bryan shared his contact information for anyone needing to get in touch. This indicates that alternative means of communication may be necessary due to the ongoing issues with the mailing list.In the latest #bitcoin-core-dev IRC meeting, the topic of the slow mailing list moderation process was discussed. It was decided that further discussion on this matter would be conducted via the mailing list itself, as it is considered the most appropriate platform for such conversations.The conversation ended with greetings from Emil Engler and an attachment of pEpkey.asc, which is an application/pgp-keys file. This suggests that Engler is using Pretty Easy Privacy (pEp) encryption to secure his email communications.Overall, the discussion highlighted the need for improvements in the moderation process for the bitcoin-dev mailing list due to delays, software vulnerabilities, and lack of maintenance. The suggestion of adding more moderators and addressing the approval requirement for previous contributors were put forward as potential solutions. However, it remains unclear whether these proposals will be implemented.
Updated on: 2023-08-02T01:14:30.271424+00:00