I think that having two lists would be a hassle and a mistake. To have two lists at one host might work, but one list at VGER and another somewhere else could be counter-productive, as "internal" communication would be constantly forwarded to the kernel list, and relevant kernel traffic would have to be forwarded back to the "internal" list. Think about that for a second. Eventually, we would probably just drop one list.
If one list is O(n), then two lists are O(n^2) for anyone who needs both. I vote for one list, no matter where it's hosted.
Don't understand the calculation as I would prefer + instead of * here, but this isn't the point (and if you would do program a bad matching algorithm here it is still O(M*N) ). Don't think that two lists are good without a good topic split. I see a reason for -devel, -users and -announcements list in some projects, but not for a list for "kernel people" and for "other people".
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Haven't followed the whole discussion, but is it real such a big problem to change the mailing list address? OK, it shouldn't be done every week, but this is done for a good reason. Just do an announcement on this list and create an auto reply (smtp failure notice with further information) when someone writes to the old list.
I agree with all of this. My point is that multiple lists should at least be hosted at the same place. The topic split is a good point, too; if there were two -devel lists, I think all of the developers would eventually use the "kernel people" list exclusively.
Maybe more interesting is the fact that if we can import old information into the new list. I think mailman stores everything in simple mboxes, or am I wrong? And also interesting if we can do backups of the data on vger and co.
Just looked at the VGER website, and they use majordomo. I don't know much about these things; can mailman data be imported to majordomo? A quick look around reveals no email addresses to contact them, other than some that seem to be spambot honeypots.
What do we need in order to make a decision? I would like to get this transition happening soon so that real work can move forward.
Jacob