From 3e96cf129ba5fc2834b691314c504aa363fd5cf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eric Wong Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 23:13:37 +0000 Subject: initial commit --- Documentation/design_notes.txt | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 67 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/design_notes.txt (limited to 'Documentation/design_notes.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/design_notes.txt b/Documentation/design_notes.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8ec1d369 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/design_notes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +Design notes and philosophy +--------------------------- + +Challenges to running normal mailing lists +------------------------------------------ +1) spam +2) bounce processing of invalid/bad email addresses +3) processing subscribe/unsubscribe requests + +Issues 2) and 3) are side-stepped entirely by moving reader +subscriptions to git repository synchronization and Atom feeds. There's +no chance of faked subscription requests and no need to deal with +confused users who cannot unsubscribe. + +Use existing infrastructure +--------------------------- + +* public-inbox can coexist with existing mailing lists, any subscriber + to the existing mailing list can begin delivering messages to + public-inbox-mda(1) + +* public-inbox uses SMTP for posting. Posting a message to a public-inbox + instance is no different than sending a message to any open mailing + list. + +* readers may continue using use their choice of mail clients and + mailbox formats, only learning a few commands of the ssoma(1) tool + is required. + +* Atom is a reasonable feed format for casual readers and is supported + by a variety of feed readers. + +Why email? +---------- + +* Freedom from proprietary services, tools and APIs. Communicating with + developers and users of Free Software should not rely on proprietary + tools or services. + +* Existing infrastrucuture, tools, and user familarity. + There is already a large variety of tools, clients, and email providers + available. There are also many resources for users to run their own + SMTP server on a domain they control. + +* All public discussion mediums are affected by spam and advertising. + There exist several good Free Software anti-spam tools for email. + +* Privacy is not an issue for public discussion. Public mailing list + archives are common and accepted by Free Software communities. + There is no need to ask the NSA for backups of your mail archives :) + +* git, one of the most widely-used version control systems, includes many + tools for for email: git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), git-am(1). + Furthermore, the development of git itself is based on the git mailing + list. + +* Email is already the de-facto form of communication in many Free Software + communities. + +* Fallback/transition to private email and other lists, in case the + public-inbox host becomes unavailable, users may still directly email + each other (or Cc: lists for related/dependent projects). + +Copyright +--------- +Copyright 2013, Eric Wong and all contributors. +License: AGPLv3 or later -- cgit v1.2.3-24-ge0c7