New faces bring new ideas. As part of Google Summer of Code this year I asked upfront our students why they didn't want to use the mailing lists the project uses on sourceforge (since it was clear they didn't) - preferring private mails and IRC (as a project we tend to prefer IRC generally nyway). The response we got was unaminous around the fact they didn't want to subscribe due to SF lists being highly spammy, and requested we move over to google groups - so they could also gain better web access and RSS feeds. It was the one answer I hadn't thought of or expected :-)

So I chatted with the other members of the community and they all pretty much agreed, but they hadn't thought of saying anything (which strikes me as a bizarre version of the Bystander Effect :-).

Anyhow, as a result, I've shifted our list over and the new faces on the block are running rampant there, which is really cool. Not only that but it's encouraging students from previous years to start popping their heads back up (so far only on private mail, but I think they can be teased out further), which is really neat :)

Sometimes it's the little details you take for granted that you completely miss...

I just thought it worth sharing in case other people think it's worth asking their new colleagues for any suggestions for making their communities more accessible :-)