Your skepticism is understandable! GH seeks to bring this collab to all, but back then the skill required to even contribute was a barrier. But in a way that barrier was acceptable and useful.
The people doing it were skilled. The basic level of skill required to even contribute was a lot. I think there’s something to that.
As a 14-year-old it was beyond me, or so I thought, but in truth it probably wasn’t. But yep, you got me; I did not contribute! I was an observer, with a genuine admiration for the simplicity and effectiveness of that method of contribution. How sending something as commonplace as an email can have profound implications when it carries a valuable contrib!
Indeed GH has some joy. Yet while convenient, modern tools might lack the intimacy and individualism of the older, more decentralized methods, which can avoid the immediate public scrutiny that GH may entail.
I suppose you can consider my words an ode to the old ways, and an invitation to consider whether some elements of the past should be reintroduced in today's collaborative environs. This might sound whimsical (and perhaps not entirely accurate), but perhaps the "email method" was even more eco-friendly!
It's not so much I think those things you list are a pain, just the overall "structure of collaboration and social organizing algorithms" (please excuse me; I'm finding this hard to articulate!).
If don't get the vibe of my comment, I totally understand! It's intended to resonate with those who witnessed the evolution of dev practices and share my nostalgia for the early internet of the 90s.
My memories of watching patches flying over those email lists are forever tied up with that whole early internet nostalgia. I loved that stuff. I read zines, and printed off RFCs so I could smuggle them to school and read them, just to “stay in touch” with online, even when we couldn’t connect. :)
