RCR Mailing List

This post is primarily directed to Matz, but is posted here for everyone to 
consider.

A few months ago it became clear to me that there was a need in the Ruby 
community for a forum dedicated to Ruby related suggestions and RCR 
discussions. Since then I've been pursuing this effort. The central goal is 
to setup a recognized mailing list for the task.

There are numerous examples in the ruby-talk archives indicating a need for 
such a focused forum, but one in particular, I beleive, exemplifies it: Hal's 
comments on the the proper content of ruby-talk: 87825. In this message Hal 
lists items he felt were appropriate and not appropriate to the list. Of 
course, since Hal felt the inappropriate items were undesirable, he worded 
those items in a negative manner. But if you consider these items in a more 
positive light it becomes clear that the primary distinction Hal is making is 
percisely the distinction between "applicative" discussion and "theoretical" 
discussion. On the whole, I think, this is a widely held opinion.

So it is my hope to create a dedicated forum for these more theoretical 
discussions. This forum would allow for deeper exploration of suggestive 
ideas for Ruby, and by extension reduce the quanity and improve the quality 
of RCRs that are ultimately submitted to RCRchive. But in order for this 
forum to really work it will require at least some basic backing from the 
core Ruby community. I have submitted a project proposal to RubyForge, called 
RCR Foundry, that would host the list. Tom Copeland and the rest of crew at 
RubyForge informed me that they appreciate my pursuit, but they could not 
support the project without approval from either David Black or Matz. I 
talked to David, and though he says he is not convinced of the forums need, 
he leaves it to others to decide if it is worth pursuing.

I hope that you and the rest of the community, even if not wholly convinced, 
will at least lend your support to giving this forum a chance to prove its 
potential.

Thanks,
T.