[Haskell-community] Request for comment: New haskell.org download page

[Michael Snoyman]

On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 8:23 PM, John Wiegley <johnw at newartisans.com> wrote:

> >>>>> Michael Snoyman <michael at fpcomplete.com> writes:
>
> > Secondly, I'd like to make clear what I think the goal for the downloads
> > page should be: new users. Experienced Haskellers are unlikely to even
> visit
> > this downloads page, and are likely well aware of the situation around
> > tooling to make an informed decision regardless of what this page says.
> I'd
> > like us to constrain discussion to "what's best for a new user." I
> haven't
> > heard anyone object to this idea before.
>
> I couldn't agree more, Michael. The new user is first in my mind with all
> of
> this.
>
> Perhaps we need a poll. So far the presented options are:
>
>     1. HP       Stack    Minimal
>     2. Stack    HP       Minimal
>     3. Stack    Minimal  HP
>     4. Minimal  HP       Stack
>     5. Minimal  Stack    HP
>
> I'll open voting at the current state, choosing #4. My reason is that HP
> and
> Stack will soon merge, and I'm willing to put Minimal first based on
> Christopher's and Gershom's arguments.
>
> Further, the reason HP is staying on the list for now is that I'd prefer
> not
> to conflate issues. I'm happy to start a new discussion, recommending to
> the
> committee that we remove HP, if others wish to.
>
> John
>

There was a lot of discussion on Twitter about this thread, but almost none
of those participants wrote into this discussion. When I asked why[1], I
got (at least[2]) two forms of response:

1. I don't want to sign up for another mailing list just to vote
2. Previous actions made it seem like the voting would be inconsequential
to the outcome

To try and lower the barrier to entry, I created a Google Form with the
same questions as above:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1w2wKSxn5YN4LtSXYHvFT2IFw_BDaT_2cjUkP9pDeqLQ/viewform?usp=send_form

I've avoided sending it to "obviously biased" sources, like the Stack
mailing list itself. It has 21 responses so far (including one from me for
"Stack Minimal HP", so please don't count my vote twice).

Given the obvious sentiment around (2) mentioned above, I think it's
important to pay attention to what people are saying outside of this
mailing list.

Michael

[1] https://twitter.com/snoyberg/status/647243155734155266
[2] One person commented that "If they are arguing against you, they aren't
going to take my opinion seriously...". That might imply a variant of (2)
above.
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