[kbenson]

> Read the mailing lists.

I would have a lot more sympathy for this point of view if they didn't fill the mailing lists with replies on the topic that were extremely unhelpful. Every reply that doesn't steer the poster towards a useful prior discussion or further the discussion in some way muddies the mailing list for future searchers, leading to more questions on topics that have been covered before. It's a self perpetuating cycle. Guess who has the power to stop it (or at least prevent it from getting worse)?

[popalop]

That's a very valid approach.

OpenBSD has been like this since it's very turbulent beginnings. For better or worse they prefer it this way (and it's bolstered by the lists having a famously high signal to noise ratio).

For a team of their size with the resources available to them they've achived a huge amount of success.

(Debates about whether they'd have larger success if they did a bit more of what they would call hand holding are also valid.)

[kbenson]

Maybe the signal to noise ratio has gotten better, or maybe my recollection is off, but I remember an excessive amount of bikeshedding circa 2006/2007 when I was reading it heavily. I've always been highly impressed with the product, but the mailing lists seem be unproductive, possibly counterproductive, in some instances, IMHO.