Migrate grass-user mailing list to discourse

[annakrat]

The grass-dev mailing list is moved now to discourse and we would like to continue with ​grass-user.

We would like to import the archives and mirror the mailing list for some time before we close it completely, the same way it was done for grass-dev (see #3255).

I would also like the admin to send batch invitations (as Regina did for grass-dev, we will provide the list of emails).

[annakrat]

I would like to move on with this, is there an estimate when this could get started?

[cvvergara]

Hello, We are waiting for budget to go thru. And approval for this ticket to be worked on.

[annakrat]

What is the status of the budget? We would really like to get this moving. Thanks!

[cvvergara]

I am planning to work on this this Friday march 14.

Some questions:

Do you want/need a group?

• grass-user group: can See, Reply, Create
• everyone: can See, Reply

Or leave:

• everyone: can See, Reply, Create

For users we recommend the second option.

Will base the description of the group on this description ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/about-the-pgrouting-users-category/4771

and will hand over the description owner to annakart, for further modifications.

Will also add a link to discourse on the mailing list description.

[annakrat]

Great! Let's go with the second option then, no group.

We tried mirroring during the grass-dev list transition and I suggest not to do it this time, it was somewhat confusing. We will just leave the mailing list open for a while, no big traffic there. But it would be good to close the user mailing list new subscriptions, similarly you did with grass-dev: ​https://lists.osgeo.org/listinfo/grass-dev

[cvvergara]

Will be posting work on progress/done in the comments:

List to be migrated: ​https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user

Next steps:

• Copy the mailing list to container
• Prepare copy within discourse import
• Announce in discourse this ticket is taking place.

[cvvergara]

Next steps:

• Proceed with the import

will take some time

[cvvergara]

Index problems:

Many errors of this kind are happening:

(note: manually breaking into lines for readability)

Failed to index message in /shared/import/data/grass-user/grass-user.mbox at lines 2651488-2651522
undefined method `sub' for nil
["/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:91:in `block in index_emails'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:158:in `block (2 levels) in all_messages'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:190:in `block in each_mail'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:210:in `block in each_line'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:210:in `each_line'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:210:in `each_line'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:187:in `each_mail'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:150:in `block in all_messages'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:143:in `foreach'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:143:in `all_messages'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:67:in `index_emails'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:25:in `block in execute'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:22:in `each'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/support/indexer.rb:22:in `execute'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/importer.rb:43:in `index_messages'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/mbox/importer.rb:27:in `execute'", 
"/var/www/discourse/script/import_scripts/base.rb:47:in `perform'", 
"script/import_scripts/mbox.rb:13:in `<module:Mbox>'", 
"script/import_scripts/mbox.rb:11:in `<module:ImportScripts>'", 
"script/import_scripts/mbox.rb:10:in `<main>'"]

[cvvergara]

Last problem message:

Failed to index message in /shared/import/data/grass-user/grass-user.mbox at lines 2764241-2764263

Will post related message on the mailing list on the next comment.

Creating users problems: Sent by mail to @annakrat

[cvvergara]

Last message with indexing problems:

​https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-user/1994-August/024144.html

Based on the date of the last problematic message: Will not bring problematic messages over to discourse.

Next steps:

Set up:

• discourse mail
• category description, parent, moderator, etc

[cvvergara]

mail setup:

grass-user@…|grass-user@…

Next steps:

mailman:

Change messages about migration on:

• digest and non digest modes: Header and footer.
• General options: Terse phrase, introductory description
• HTML pages: listinfo.html
• add discourse as member of the list.

[cvvergara]

There are a lot of mails that are marked with:

• nomail [reason]

Is delivery to the member disabled? If so, an abbreviation will be given describing the reason for the disabled delivery.

Possible reasons are:

• U: Delivery was disabled by the user via their person options page.
• A: Delivery was disabled by the list administrators.
• B: Delivery was disabled by the system due to excessive bouncing from the member's address.
• ?: The reason for disabled delivery isn't known. This is the case for all membership which were disabled in older versions of Mailman.

Needs to be cleaned up before creating the invite.csv file

[cvvergara]

Due to the number of subscriptions:

• Its a semi-mirror of the mailing list
• Messages will still arrive but they will need to be moderated

[cvvergara]

Next steps:

• Clean the list to be able to generate the invites.csv
• generate the invites
• Show and tell on moderation to @annakrat

[annakrat]

Thanks Vicky!

I noticed an inconsistency in grass user and developer category names and URLs:

Developer category has name "GRASS GIS Developer" and URL: ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/tags/c/grass/developer/61/

but user category is only "grass-user" and URL: ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/grass-user/70

Could we make it consistent?

Also, GRASS decided to phase out the "GIS" in the project's name, use just "GRASS", so we would like to reflect that in discourse as well. ​https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-psc/2025-February/002982.html

I don't think I have permissions to change it.

[cvvergara]

Hi Anna

Removed the GIS from various places.

I don't understand what you mean about the consistency. All these as long as there is the number 70 at the end take you to the same category

• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/grass-user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass-user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/grass-user

You can edit to remove the GIS:

• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/60018
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/85554

[cvvergara]

The invites will be done by @annakrat

Closing ticket

[annakrat]

Replying to cvvergara:

Hi Anna

Removed the GIS from various places.

I don't understand what you mean about the consistency. All these as long as there is the number 70 at the end take you to the same category

• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/grass-user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass-user/70
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/grass-user

OK then but can we have here "GRASS User" instead of "grass-user" in the same way there is "GRASS Developer": ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/grass/62

You can edit to remove the GIS:

• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/60018
• ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/85554

I can't edit ​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/85554, there is still GIS left in the text.

Thanks!

[cvvergara]

about ​​https://discourse.osgeo.org/t/85554:

You are owner of that description, you should be able to edit it. Anyway I removed the GIS from that description.

About grass-user: I don't understand what you want