Why Sponsor Oils? | blog | oilshell.org

oil-dev is moving to Zulip

Last year, I set up the oil-dev@oilshell.org mailing list.

It's been dormant since most project communication happens on Github, via issues and pull requests. It also has a spam/moderation problem, which is apparently common for mailing lists on Dreamhost.

So I'm closing the list and moving it to Zulip. If you're interested in the development of Oil, please sign up:

• oilshell.zulipchat.com

I sign in with Github, which is super easy. You should also be able to read messages via e-mail, without signing in.

What is Zulip?

I wrote an explanation here, but deleted it because this picture by Julia Evans is better.

zulip: chat software I love (https://t.co/ptSLTsSOnv!) pic.twitter.com/1ABsZpdiP0

— 🔎Julia Evans🔍 (@b0rk) April 18, 2018

In short, Zulip is a group chat app with an e-mail threading model.

We had oil-dev@ and oil-discuss@ mailing lists, and now we have the same structure with #oil-dev and #oil-discuss Zulip streams.

(User interface note: my friend Eric didn't like the small fonts. Hit Ctrl-+ in your browser to increase their size. You can also change the visual theme in your Zulip settings.)

Oil on Other Sites

• oilshell/oil on Github: I'm generally happy with how issues and pull requests work, so nothing changes here.
• /r/oilshell on Reddit. I'm using reddit for blog comments, and I had thought it would be good for general discussion as well. That hasn't really happened, so perhaps Zulip can fill that niche.

What's Next?

1. I'll invite everyone on the existing mailing lists to Zulip, then close them down.
2. Feel free to post test messages to the #new members stream. It may take a few minutes to get used to Zulip. One difference compared to Slack is that you need to click on a message to reply to it. This is more like GMail than IRC.
3. Introduce yourself on #oil-discuss!
4. I have a few things to discuss before I go to Recurse Center. Recurse Center also uses uses Zulip — I'm pretty sure I heard about it there!
5. I'll keep my commitment to answer questions about Oil development while I'm on the east coast. You should send questions via Zulip!

Again, here is where you sign up:

• oilshell.zulipchat.com

And here's a link to a specific thread:

• https://oilshell.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/121539-oil-dev/topic/Contributing.20to.20Oil

Appendix A: Discarded Alternatives

• IRC: I don't like IRC, and I think Zulip makes it unnecessary.
• Mailman lists: I'm shutting them down in favor of Zulip.
• Hosted mailing lists: I've used Google Groups for other projects, and it also has a spam problem.
• Slack: It's close to Zulip, but not open source, and doesn't have proper threads.
• Discourse: I considered it before Zulip. Rust and Julia use it. It seems more like a mailing list than chat, and you have to run your own instance.

NOTE: E-mails sent directly to me may get lost. Please start a new thread on Zulip instead! I'll be monitoring it closely.