Survey: How will we communicate in the future (Mailing lists, forum, ...)?

Community
6

It took me a bit to compile them, but here are the results:

Have you used a forum (e.g., Discourse) before?

82.1% replied Yes, 17.9% replied No

Have you used a mailing list?

92.3% replied Yes, 7.7% replied No

Have you been aware of the RIOT mailing lists before this survey?

92.3% replied Yes, 7.7% replied No

To which RIOT mailing lists are you subscribed?

81.0% quoted devel@riot-os.org, 69.8% quoted users@riot-os.org, 34.9% quoted maintainer@riot-os.org, 11.1% quoted None
81.0% quoted devel@riot-os.org, 69.8% quoted users@riot-os.org, 34.9% quoted maintainer@riot-os.org, 11.1% quoted None829×323 21.2 KB

Have you participated in discussions on the RIOT mailing lists?

47.8% replied Yes, 22.2% replied No

When considering discussions related to RIOT, which communication channel do you prefer?

30.0% replied Strong preference for a forum, 10.0% replied Preference for a forum, 18.9% replied No preference, 6.7% replied Preference for mailing lists, 10.0% replied Strong preference for mailing lists
30.0% replied Strong preference for a forum, 10.0% replied Preference for a forum, 18.9% replied No preference, 6.7% replied Preference for mailing lists, 10.0% replied Strong preference for mailing lists942×323 26.7 KB

Would a forum increase your interaction with the RIOT community?

14.4% replied Yes, I would read more in forum discussions., 34.4% replied Yes, I would read and write more in forum discussions., 26.7% replied No.
14.4% replied Yes, I would read more in forum discussions., 34.4% replied Yes, I would read and write more in forum discussions., 26.7% replied No.1153×323 21.3 KB

Please rate the following tools based on your preference for chat-based communication about RIOT

1 = least preferred … 5 = highly preferred

Circle sizes show percentage of 5 preference levels
Circle sizes show percentage of 5 preference levels908×647 84.9 KB

Which social medial platforms are you using regularly?

26.5% quoted Facebook, 11.8% quoted Fediverse (diaspora*, Mastodon, ...), 91.2% quoted GitHub, 19.1% quoted Instagram, 39.7% quoted LinkedIn, nan% quoted Pinterest, 36.8% quoted Reddit, 2.9% quoted Snapchat, 51.5% quoted Stack Overflow, 5.9% quoted TikTok, nan% quoted Tumblr, 39.7% quoted Twitter, 2.9% quoted Vimeo, 67.6% quoted YouTube
26.5% quoted Facebook, 11.8% quoted Fediverse (diaspora*, Mastodon, ...), 91.2% quoted GitHub, 19.1% quoted Instagram, 39.7% quoted LinkedIn, nan% quoted Pinterest, 36.8% quoted Reddit, 2.9% quoted Snapchat, 51.5% quoted Stack Overflow, 5.9% quoted TikTok, nan% quoted Tumblr, 39.7% quoted Twitter, 2.9% quoted Vimeo, 67.6% quoted YouTube958×670 47.5 KB

Other

Word cloud rendered from answers below

  • mastodon
  • Gitlab
  • Matrix, Slack, Telegram
  • none of the above
  • irc

Any additional feedback, either related to this or any other topic related to RIOT?

Word cloud rendered from answers below

  • The RIOT community should not get lost in tools.
  • We really need better on boarding materials for absolute beginners. Documentation is excellent but not clear where to actually begin with a sensor. Drivers/Examples/Tests distinction isn’t clear in the documentation.
  • I have not selected media platforms that I use for personal/family things only.
    • the users mailing list should be removed, devel and maintainers are enough. Users of RIOT are developers. - I don’t understand the purpose of the last question. Are you seriously considering using Facebook or Snapchat or TikTok as communication tools ? - A nice feature of Slack and Mattermost (I don’t know if that exists on the others) is the possibility to configure channels linked to GitHub activity: any new issue, PR and comment sends a new message in that channel. That’s a better alternative to emails generated by GitHub. The same thing exists to link Discourse to Slack.
  • Discord
  • For chat-based communication: Telegram.
  • I think it will be bad if discussions are fragmented.
    • It’s a ironic that a survey about an IPv6-capable OS is not reachable over IPv6. Please fix this, it’s 2020! - Why are the chat-centric social media platforms (Matrix/Slack/Telegram/WhatsApp/Discord/etc) missing? - Telegram: 2 stars; Discord: 1 star :wink:
  • Question 9 feels really out of place.
  • I use GitHub, but really not for its social media aspects (Yes to bugtracking, No to following developers, setting my mood emoji or logging in to stuff via GitHub). On the topic of mailing lists vs. forums, entries in mailing list archives are notoriously hard to find in search engines – that’s a shortcoming that could be fixed individually, but if a forum it is, one fewer item to address.
  • would be nice to have discussions visible to anyone (default) without needing to login/signup
  • I think mailing lists lead to more focused and higher quality interaction than the alternatives.
  • mailing list have the advantage of being archived correctly and survive whatever happens :). Forums, and basically any web thing, is lost after some time. I can see the benefit of having async and sync solutions coexisting (mails + irc/matrix/whatever), but not really 2 async solutions.
  • gitter to merge with matrix IMHO IRC over matrix would be fine for most needs try: https://riot.im/app/#/room/#freenode_#riot:matrix.org I am RzR there
  • When I asked some technical questions, some mailing lists’ members answered it, even if I was a RIOT beginner. It is too good for RIOT being well-used.
  • :slight_smile: