Re: New Package for NonGNU-ELPA: clojure-ts-mode

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 02/09/2023 15:10, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > ?? You mean I must keep_all_  the emails I receive forever?
> > >
> > > What I do is file (a.k.a. "archive") the emails I want to keep, for
> > > whatever reasons, and delete all the rest.  How is that a
> > > "deficiency", let alone one of my MUA?  My MUA simply does what I tell
> > > it to do.
> > Both Debbugs and other newer bug trackers keep the history of older
> > comments in their database.
> >
> > So it's not really an issue of someone being forced to keep email
> > archives forever: we can read the older threads on the web too.
> Yes, of course.  I also do that.  I only said that it is less
> convenient than having the context right there, in the message to
> which I'm replying, that's all.  And that people who participate in
> discussions via a Web browser frequently omit the context since it's
> "right there", and they don't think about someone who receives the
> discussion via email.

Agree on both counts.

I'd just like to add (or reiterate?) that the "browser users" aren't 
being irrational either: for the "flat" display which is common for both 
the Web browser view and the browser email clients such as 
Gmail/Proton/Fastmail adding too much context can feel like a disservice 
to other parties as well, because if you expect them to use the same 
method when reading (rather than a traditional email client with 
threaded display, which I BTW use myself), it would look and feel 
excessive, both because the reader has to skip over more text to find 
the new message, and because fewer messages fit in one screen.

> > The problem you are discussing it the difference between flat and
> > threaded email conversations' display.
> No, the problem_I_  commented on was the importance of having the
> context in the message to which I'm replying, in the form of quoted
> excerpts from previous messages.  If I'm required to look it up in
> previous messages, it is possible, but less convenient, since I don't
> know in which message to look for it, and thus need to look back one
> message at a time until I find out.

So, where do we go from here?

If the new bug tracker allows users to leave comments using the browser, 
and if enough of them start using that feature, they can naturally 
gravitate to leaving less context in quotes, for both of the reasons 
described above.

I don't remember seeing any popular newer bug trackers which would use 
threaded display for discussions either. Even SourceHut's todo 
discussions are displayed as flat (despite it having no in-browser 
commenting UI so far): https://todo.sr.ht/~emacs/emacs/1

If we put a lot of priority on the community quoting habits staying the 
same, that would seem to mean we should only allow replying in our 
discussions using an email client.

As opposed to, for example, tolerating that style in bug report comments 
(possibly with a convention that we try to keep those threads relatively 
short, either splitting a bug# into several or moving to the mailing 
list, whenever a discussion grows too large).