Mailing list shuffle?

[Steven Bosscher <s dot bosscher at student dot tudelft dot nl>]

Op di 16-07-2002, om 21:09 schreef Joe Buck:
> Those seeking tutorials, and first-time gcc users, should use the gcc-help
> list, not the gcc list.  See http://gcc.gnu.org/lists.html for the set
> of available lists, how to subscribe or unsubscribe, and what the policies
> are for each list.

[ Somebody *must* have posted this suggestion before, but I
  couldn't find any threads about it, so... ]

How about killing the gcc-help mailing list. We could make
"gcc at gcc.gnu.org" the support/help mailing list, and create a new
mailing list, say, "gcc-devel at gcc.gnu.org"?

The gcc mailing list is supposed to discuss GCC development issues, and
gcc-help is supposed to be the user support mailing list. But I see
quite a few user questions in the gcc mailing list (nobody seems to care
about reading the manual, what's new?).

Now you can say we expect them to read the manual, or just the homepage.
In that case you accept some of the cruft on this mailing list. Or you
can surrender, admit that the people who ask the most simple questions
usually are the same people that do not read the manual and ask their
*support* questions on gcc at gcc.gnu.org.

I'm not arguing that the the gcc-help list isn't useful. Just look at
the gcc-help archives. Most questions are not newbee questions. Check
out the threads with subjects like: "Subinstalling multiple versions of
GCC", "Cast difference between GCC on Linux and Forte on Solaris",
"5*1.2 = 5 or 5*1.2 = 6 ?". Some of it really is non-trivial (as in
"undocumented") stuff, the people who ask their questions there usually
know what they're talking about, and there are some really helpful
threads in this mailing list.

But then look at some threads (or at least a post and at most two
replies) on this mailing list:
- "Information on GCC" (reply: polite RTFM)
- "cc: command not found" (reply: polite RTFM)
- "please subscribe me to the gcc mailing list" (no replies, doh!)
- "gcc-3.1 make problem"
- "gcc-error"
etc...

This is only a small selection of support requests on this mailing list.

I think that to many people, the "intuitive" support email address is
"gcc at gcc.gnu.org", or "help at gcc.gnu.org", "support at gcc.gnu.org"
or "info at gcc.gnu.org". (Where do such mails end up? Here?). Either
way, if I were a complete newbee in need of support, the first email
address I would think of would definitely not be "gcc-help at
gcc.gnu.org".

To avoid all confusion we could rename this mailing list to gcc-devel.

Greetz
Steven