As someone who isn't able to sign up for accounts, I want to be able to follow / participate in OpenControl

[afeld]

Currently, OpenControl has a few ways we do group communications:

• GitHub issues, specifically in this repository
• Google Group
• Slack - join page

The problem with all of these is that they require having/creating an account with that service, which is something people in many government agencies can't do freely. The requirements here are:

• Users can to subscribe and reply to (at least a subset of) OpenControl discussions
• The above requires only an email address; email confirmation is good, but no "account creation" or acceptance of terms of service beyond that
• Easy and free/cheap for OpenControl to operate

Options

Will update as we go.

• Comment Card / Problem Child
  • Con: Only partial solutions, but could build on them
• Fire
  • Pro: Theoretically makes GitHub issues act like a mailing list, so users can interact/subscribe to either
  • Pro: Would take advantage of the conversations already in this repository and doesn't further fragment discussion
• Groups.io
• Mailman or something like it
  • Con: the UI is horrible

Other ideas?

Non-options

In addition to the ones listed up top.

• Discourse - requires account
• Gitter - requires Twitter/GitHub/GitLab account
• Mailchimp - announcement-only

[openprivacy]

I'm in the mailing list/use Google Groups camp. Unfortunately, we live in the age of spammers and trolls, and though I don't like the privacy implications and requirement to create an account, Google offers archives, searches and (in particular) strong spam management for free. They also offer free gmail accounts that one can forward to their daily account so one can keep abreast of the news.

[afeld]

Again, Google Groups specifically is not an option, due to the fact that many government employees won't have work Google accounts or be allowed to create them.

[JJediny]

I don't think there is a great way to avoid some login requirement, other than a standard mailing list.

Options for a communication forum that supports raw email sign up:

• https://www.discourse.org/features#Social_Login (for self hosted)
• https://stackexchange.com (as-a-service)

Others like gitter/slack require either Oauth or email-based account creation.
Google groups a google account etc.