RE: [hypermail] getting the hypermail project on its feet again

From: Crispen, Bob <Robert.Crispen_at_HSV.Boeing.com_at_hypermail-project.org>
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 08:29:29 -0600
Message-Id: <ADC9269D74C5D011A41F00805FEA40E8046CDCB0_at_xch-hsv-02.hv.boeing.com>

Nicolas Noble[SMTP:Pixel_at_the-babel-tower.nobis.phear.org] sez:

> Suggestion 1&2 bis: moving the hypermail.org website into a sourceforge
> project since they already got such mecanisms.
>

I agree. Putting hypermail on sourceforge will announce to the world that hypermail is in business. While there are people who'll automatically type in www.gzip.org or www.hypermail.org (etc.) when they want to find out about an open source program, many people won't. And many old timers like me may still have the old, dead EIT URL for hypermail.

And too, we might attract some coders on sourceforge. Stranger things have happened. I know that libvrml97 took some significant steps forward when it went to sourceforge.

> > If we don't act, hypermail will continue its decay and it will
> eventually
> > just end up on that huge pile of dead software projects. I'll certainly
> > abandon the ship before that happens. I just think it would be a shame
> to see
> > that happen when there's potential in the project.
>
> I agree. Hypermail is a great piece of software but we should be able to
> get a little more from it. However, we should get people moving up and
> ready to code for it or, as you said, nobody will continue it.
>

I disagree that it's in decay, since (a) hypermail patently works, (b) new features have been added that represent significant user requirements, and (c) it's in such wide use.

As to the last, I suspect there are people out there who are still using Kevin Hughes' original version. We need to get the word out. If you don't mind, I'll see if I can write up something we could feed to Jesse Berst etc. I think we'd find some interest in the trade press, especially if we avoid the dates when quarterly earnings are announced -- which the trade press too often believe is technical news.

Maybe the folks on this list might want to take a look at the competitors to hypermail. That might focus us on features that other developers and development teams have found that meet their users' requirements.

It's a pity that egroups developed their own (and it may be that hypermail wasn't suitable, since they may use a database). Doubly so, since I find their way of listing articles much harder to get around in than hypermail's. But maybe we can look toward getting some high profile placements of hypermail on similar sites. We might even achieve that by sending email to these sites saying something like, "Your mail archives are really hard to get around in. I sure wish you used something like hypermail instead of whatever you're using now."

Just because hypermail is open source doesn't mean it isn't a product and isn't succeptible to traditional marketing techniques.

Bob Crispen
bob.crispen_at_boeing.com Received on Thu 11 Jan 2001 04:33:02 PM GMT