mailing lists: build a permanent archive at ml.golang.org

[FiloSottile]

As of recently, it looks like a Google account is required to access Google Groups.

For example, loading this security release announcement on mobile or in an incognito tab leads to a login page:
https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/NyPIaucMgXo/m/GdsyQP6QAAAJ

This is plainly unacceptable for announcements, especially for security ones, and needs to be resolved ASAP. It's also a problem for community involvement, because there seems to be no way for users to discover how to sign up for the mailing lists without a Google account. Finally, we regularly share designs for review on the mailing lists, and following those discussions should not require an account.

If this is something we can turn off, we should. Otherwise, we might have to at least run a public mirror like public-inbox.org, with instruction for signing up and posting via email without an account, assuming that still works.

It's sad that moving away from Google Groups would be too much of a mess, or I would recommend considering that.

/cc @golang/osp-team

[dmitshur]

I completely agree that it is not reasonable for announcements to require a login to be read. That was never intended, and we added checks to our release tooling to ensure we don't accidentally post a link that does.

There are different types of URLs to messages posted on Google Groups. The one you posted always prompts for a login. This one does not:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/golang-announce/NyPIaucMgXo/GdsyQP6QAAAJ

Or, at least, it used to not. It seems to also require a login now, which wasn't the case earlier. Is that what this issue is about?

[FiloSottile]

Yes, this is a Google Groups change. I am escalating internally to find a workaround.

[seebs]

Possibly-related: It's much harder than it used to be to sign up to the lists except via a browser logged in to a Google account.

[FiloSottile]

The immediate issue should now be mitigated. I am going to retarget this issue towards building an archive at golang.org that we can control the contents for, like we have for all other services we use.