Could we add a new list for engines developers?

It is not always clear whether we should use Rails-talk or Rails-core list.

In the same way we have a list for Rails documentation and we had one for i18n, would you consider a new list oriented to Engine/Plugins developers?

This would be a list we could subscribe for engine-related questions that would't have a very big traffic like the Rails-talk one and I think such a list could be pretty useful for gem authors.

Would that be wanted?

+1

Agree that a Rails engine is in the frontier between custom app code and Rails architecture, yet a client (and not core) of Rails.

Engine lists have been created in the past, but they’re not very active or are dead.

-1 to a new engine list and +1 to just asking the questions in rails-talk first

rails-talk is a ghetto.

A new engines list would be best.

Here’s a past one…

http://www.mail-archive.com/engine-users@lists.rails-engines.org/

dead!

Which makes me think about it: What could we do to better improve rails lists organization in a way that would benefit most out of it?

While I agree that a Rails engine/plugin mailing list is useful, perhaps forking Rails-talk into specific categories, even if keeping a general rails-talk mailing list would benefit our general usage and understanding of where should we ask something specific. This mimics some IRC channels splitting strategies when the number of users talking generally about several stuff, like our rails-talk list, can lead to difficulty into separating noise from sound. rails-talk can still exits for most newcomers, but we would have the ability to redirect their questions to people more aware of their path to solve the problem.

i can clearly separate Engines, Railties and Assets for new mailing lists.

What do you think?

+1 for the need for a Rails Engine specific list.

There will be a windfall of questions about migrating to Engines because of the Rails 4 deprecation of plugins (according to this change log).

Since most questions will be implementation specific, probably best to keep off Rails core and categorize Rails-Talk (even if it is ghetto).

Yes, but engines kinda sucked before 3.1. Now a lot more people are using them.

+1 for the list.

All this talk of categorization sounds almost like there should be some kind of Rails forum for discussing things in, rather than isolated mailing lists.

There’s an engine for that. https://github.com/radar/forem

+1 for the forum idea.

A forum is not as effective as mailing lists for people like me.

Usually you will only access a forum for asking questions and not to

reply to them. This also makes it less likely that your question will be answered.

In a mailing list you'll see all messages that comes through them.

Eventually you’ll see a question that you’re able to reply even though your main interest in the list is making questions instead of answering them.

I have searched for "engine" in the Rails-talk list and I found that

that list is probably not very effective for such subject:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/PqCTofRUSrM/ZXmbOmB_368J ( app-prefix for tasks defined in an engine?! - no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/XvrZOOcsmD8/6sAQjLWB1QcJ (self replied)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/OkE9zq5APVQ/6IgaWmZIirUJ (same)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/iMDlv-U5Kyc/r1uvnconwlIJ (no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/b_gStTqQXvA/vQNSqsF2muIJ (no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/1IofgiCKbUQ/69eaQeOGvG8J (no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/5T0g8ADL_4w/4BgZItDw260J (no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/K6cgyimLb5Y/2YlNZPsPFM4J (no answers)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/rubyonrails-talk/engine/rubyonrails-talk/JpLBcLhu2PA/p4-xpg6iC2cJ (no answers)

This is pretty typical in Rails-talk and I'd say this would

represent about 80% of the top results for “engine” search in that group.

And there is a lot of regular questions like database modeling,

validations, etc there too.

I still think that a focused mailing list on Engines or more

advanced stuff could be interesting for dealing with experienced Rails developers.

You will also find by looking at that group that the people that are

most likely to be the ones that know best the answers are not subscribed to rails-talk but to rails-core only.

Lots of them don't even seem to be subscribed to rails-core even and

I’d suspect the core members have a separate mailing list or other means of communicating between themselves.

That is why I think a focused general questions list about advanced

subjects could be interesting.

I hope you understand what I mean.

Cheers,

Rodrigo.

@Rodrigo et all - any further thoughts on actionable items?

@RyanBigg - does Forum have email based forum replies?

-weston

No, Forem doesn’t have email based forum replies. You would need to set up some kind of SMTP receiver for that (or use a service like SendGrid which supports it)

So Forum doesn’t support email based responses. Are there other solutions besides Google Groups?

I like the idea of starting a Rails Engines specific Google Group. Input welcome.