1465226 - Archive and shutter many newsgroups.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(mozilla.org :: Discussion Forums, task)

Description

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

Please don't act on this bug before Monday, June 4th, in case objections are raised in the interim.

The following newsgroups have outlived their usefulness, and should be archived and shuttered. My criteria this decision are "nothing useful in a year or more", "an explicit announcement that discussion has moved to discourse" or "permission of the owner."

mozilla.announce.compatibility
mozilla.affiliates
mozilla.education
mozilla.evangelism
mozilla.general
mozilla.jobs
mozilla.join
mozilla.legal 
mozilla.marketing
mozilla.mozillians
mozilla.privacy
mozilla.dev.fxos
mozilla.dev.marketplace
mozilla.dev.webapps
mozilla.dev.apps.calendar
mozilla.dev.identity
mozilla.dev.apps.chatzilla
mozilla.dev.apps.dom-inspector
mozilla.activity-stream
mozilla.apis
mozilla.dev.b2gdroid
mozilla.dev.chat
mozilla.dev.community-tools
mozilla.dev.decentralization
mozilla.dev.flyweb
mozilla.dev.bluetooth
mozilla.dev.chat
mozilla.dev.community-tools
mozilla.dev.decentralization
mozilla.dev.fxos.sync
mozilla.dev.mozdef

Thank you.

Comment 1

[Jeff Bryner [:jeff] (use NEEDINFO 😉)]

mozilla.dev.mozdef is deleted FWIW.

Comment 2

[Michael Kohler [:mkohler]]

mozilla.community.switzerland can be archived and shuttered too as it has been moved to Discourse and there was no activity in the past 2 years.

Comment 3

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

This is a blunt-instrument first pass, no the final list. I'll get to the moz.community.* groups shortly, but they deserve a lot more consideration and advance notice than these ones do.

Comment 4

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I'm unsure about mozilla.general, as that's a catch-all and followup destination for threads that have veered off-topic. See <https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/forums/etiquette/> under 'Stay on Topic':
"Off-topic discussion not taken to private email, mozilla.general, or any place where it is not considered off-topic, by someone who knows they should be taking it elsewhere, is eligible for removal from the news server."

Although there's a lot of spam in there, and no-one seems to be moderating it.

Comment 5

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

Nobody's moderating it, nobody's monitoring it, and it's a sewer. Discourse is where it's at these days.

Comment 6

[David E. Ross]

What is the benefit of killing mozilla.general?  Who does this benefit, the developers or the users?

Comment 7

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

I'd thought that it was largely disused, but I've heard a bunch of people say otherwise. I'm happy to remove it from the list.

Comment 8

[bev ashley]

It most certainly is NOT disused.  People who have been banned by Chris from the support* groups (off-topic posting, including friendly but non-useful comments) use it to discuss actual Mozilla issues with at least SOME hope of a solution.  A certain camaraderie has also sprung up, which Chris actively discourages.  

If there is no real reason to kill it, PLEASE leave mozilla.general alone.

Comment 9

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

Thanks for that feedback, Bev. Since there seems to be a lot of support for that forum, I'll take it off the list.

Comment 10

[bev ashley]

T H A N K  Y O U  ! ! ! !

Comment 11

[Mele]

I've been reading Mozilla.general forever it seems and just learned it was being killed.  (Learned the sad news about Gerv too from the thread in moz.gen just now).  I feel Mozilla.general is a vital part of the Mozilla newsgroup community.  Bev is right that Chris tends to be very strict and unforgiving so if you tend toward useful, but still off topic as Chris thinks, and you get banned, the ban I think is forever.  So, yeah, moz.gen has a camaraderie about it and is really the only Mozilla newsgroup I know of that is for general discussion of Mozilla in all it facets and we need a place like that.  So, I join Bev in thanking you for taking it off the list.

Comment 12

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

The first pass has happened:

https://github.com/mozilla/community-data/pull/21

To confirm, mozilla.general wasn't cut from the forums list, and I'll follow this up with a list of the newsgroups to archive that will also not include mozilla.general.

Comment 13

[Rubén Martín [:Nukeador] ❌ [away till Aug 31st]]

Mhoye, note I opened bug 1512954 for the actions to the mozillians one, I feel there is a need for a small comms to this group (maybe others) before closing it.

Thanks for leading this!

Cheers.

Comment 14

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

Thank you. 

My next action on this bug will be to shutter the regional and localization newsgroups, as they seem to have all been moved to the Mozilla Community discourse site.

In addition, as you mention, the Mozillians mailing list is also on the chopping block, as are the instantbird and dev.chat groups referenced in 1502041.

I'll confirm those changes with an announcement in the discourse instance and communicate with the localization team.