Lambda the Ultimate - Admin

General admin notes

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:00:05 -0400

We are experiencing a surge of new members, and that's great! We always value new members.

Let me remind everyone to pursue the policies document (available through the FAQ page). I want to emphasize two policy items in particular: We discourage nicknames, and when they are used encourage members to provide a url of a home page or related information in their profile. Second, LtU is in general not intended for detailed design discussions. More relevant forums are listed in the policies document.

Happy Birthday, dear Lambda!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:27:02 -0400

Eight years ago LtU was born. In terms of internet phenomena that is truly remarkable longevity (heck, even google is hardly ten years old), but even in "real world" terms I think this qualifies LtU as a venerable institution.

Ever since Chris posted the first LtU birtday message back in 2001 it has become somewhat of a tradition to post a birthday message each year, and these have become a good place to reflect on the sate of LtU and the direction it is taking. Looking at the previous birthday posts sure got me reflecting. Here they are: year one, year two, year three, year five, year six, and year seven.

So how did we fare this last year? I think that overall we did pretty well, much better than I expected last year when we were in the middle of what looked like a losing battle with spammers. I think we (and by that I mean Anton, first and foremost) managed to pretty much keep spam under control without imposing unnecessary restrictions on new users. LtU was always welcoming to new users, and we strive hard to keep it that way - which leads to the second issue...

We were worried that with too many new members signing up the quality of discussions will go down, and the atmosphere of the site will change. While this happened to some extent from time to time, I think that in general most discussions remain as informative as ever - in fact, some have become too highbrow even for me... Quite a few new members have become regulars, and even contributing editors. I am very glad to see this happen, for all the obvious reasons. I am especially glad to see that we stopped attracting so many "drive-by members" who sign up only to ask one question and are then gone. LtU is not the best place for such questions, which in the past also proved to be mostly off-topic. New members, on the other hand, always add something new to the community.

Indeed, what is truly phenomenal and inspiring about LtU for me is not the continuity of the site, but the continuity of the community. I've been saying this every year, I think, but it is worth repeating. What gives LtU its unique flavor are the many members that have been part of the community for many years, some from the very early days. While not an online sewing circle, I think LtU does encourage long time members to become contributing editors, to share their interests more explicitly, and even to mention from time to time, if they so wish, their own changing circumstances. This is a professional community, but a community none the less.

The community is what holds LtU together, but it is hidden in the forum. The public face of LtU, and what should be the main focus of the discussion on the site, are the home page news items. From the early days there has been a tension between the forum and the blog aspects of LtU: while ideally all good links should be on the home page, and these should be the focus of discussion, quite often the forum takes on a life of its own. Since some members do not follow the forum discussions closely, and since the home page items are a good way to stir the direction of the site, this may be less the ideal. The solution, as always, is for the contributing editors (who are those members who manage the home page group blog) to be more active, and for more members to become contributing editors. If you are a regular, and think that you can contribute semi-regularly (i.e., as often as you want) to one or more of the LtU departments, you should consider signing up.

Let me conclude this rambling message on a more personal note. This year I moved to Menlo Park, California. Hearing from and meeting local LtU members made the move easier. It was a great experience to encounter people in various places who recognized my name, and asked "Are you the guy from LtU?" (the next question usually being "So what do you say about Scala?", by the way). Being extremely busy I didn't take advantage of all the activities around here this year, but the one time I did manage to go to a BayFP meeting was great fun.

Who knows what the next year will bring? For now, thank you all for your participation. You are LtU!

New Members

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:16:25 -0500

I am glad to see many new members joining the LtU daily.

This is a short reminder to all the new users to please read the FAQ and policy documents, and use LtU for the intended purposes of the site (the LtU spirit page may also be of interest). As the community gets larger it becomes more important to keep in mind the shared interests that bring most people to the site.

I also recommend reading the getting start thread (linked from the FAQ), which contains many useful reading suggestions, as well as the various other pages linked to from the navigation bar on the left.

As always old time members are urged to assist the newer members and make them feel welcome to our community.

Leave of absence

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 06:07:08 -0400

I am in the process of relocating to the United States for a couple of years (we'll be stying in the Palo-Alto area), so I will probably be less active around LtU in the next couple of weeks until I settle in. I also expect it will take me more time to respond to emails.

LtU turns 7: The year of spam

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 01:44:05 -0400

Seven years ago today LtU was born. I find it incredible that we have been doing this for so long, that some of the earliest members are still here, and that some of the same topics are still going strong! While the range of topics and general style of LtU remained fairly constant over the years, each year brought with it its own flavour. The main reason for this was that LtU was always open to new members, and each contributing editor influenced the discussion according to his interests.

So how can one summarize year seven?

I think that for Anton and me year seven will be remembered as the year of spam. We have been fighting spam daily, and I fear that we will have to put in place more draconian measures on new users shortly. Some of you probably saw a couple of spam messages that managed to get past us. But let me assure you: this is a tiny fraction. There are hundreds of new users that signed up only to post spam, with at least two or three new spammers signing up daily. Since we try to accommodate new members, I am not deleting users that fail to comply with our request for real names or identifying personal information - and so detecting potential spammers before they begin posting spam is difficult and time consuming. One reason why I posted fewer programming language related posts was that I was simply too busy fighting spam...

This is a good opportunity to thank Anton again for all he does to keep LtU up and running ( his insightful and amusing posts I take for granted, you see). Without his help in putting in place the technical infrastructure required for all the spam monitoring and control we would have drowned in spam long ago. This is one reason (aside from the fact that I was very busy with other things) that year seven is (still) not the Year of the Wiki. We put up a wiki, but decided that the integration of the wiki into LtU would require too much time, time both us couldn't spend this year.

Spam came to LtU for the simple reason that LtU became too well known a site... In fact the second thing that happened to LtU this year is that the number of active members grew considerably. This is, of course, very gratifying. I still remember the early days, when LtU had three members, and we didn't know if between the three of us we can keep finding enough interesting material to keep the site alive.

As one might expect this meant that some topics that were discussed here many times came up for discussion again. It is good to revisit these issues from time to time, but I fear that the rising volume of messages, and the number of new users, some of whom with less decorum than others, kept many old timers from engaging in these discussions, leading to some long threads that were not up to the usual quality of LtU discussions. Since no one was there to object, some may have gotten the impression that these threads (replete with ad hominem attacks, insults and language advocacy) are acceptable on LtU. I am partly to blame for not stepping in, but I just didn't have the time to follow all these discussions. So let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that discussions of this type are not welcome by the LtU community, and suggest more recent members consult the LtU policy as well as the LtU spirit pages. We discussed various forms of moderation and control in the past, and I still think the conclusion we reached - that is that the community should "police" itself - is the right one. If you find the content or style objectionable, post about it (in a separate thread, if needed).

I noticed that several of the LtU contributing editors began to post less and less. While I think the items on the home page are
interesting and exciting, there are fewer new home page items each week than I'd like. One reason for this is that many prefer to post things on their own blogs, and a fair amount of LtU candidate material gets posted to places like programming.reddit.com. While there are LtU members who prefer to keep the site restricted as much as possible to the discussion of published academic papers, my opinion is that if a regular member considers some project, site or presentation to be of interest to the LtU community, he should post about it here. This is even truer when it comes to contributing editors, of course. Contributing editors - don't hesitate, contribute! I remind everyone that we have some departments that are begging for stories, top among them the new departments devoted to Scala and Ruby.

It seems to me that LtU is in a state of transition. We can fight to remain the LtU we all know and love - but this requires effort. Or we can hope for the best, and see LtU turn into comp.lang.misc. To make sure we don't jump the shark, the community has to step up. Both in terms of steering the conversation, and keeping threads from getting long and disorganized, and by posting new and interesting stuff!

This is a good opportunity to ask long time members to mentor new members, not just direct them to the getting started page :-) . I implore old timers that are sitting back to engage in the conversation, and let us know what they are up to. We miss you guys!
And most of all, I pray for spammers to just crawl back to where they came from.

The last wish, I know, is unlikely to happen. The others I think are within our reach!

Happy birthday everyone!

Mutable variables eliminated from .NET

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:31:44 -0400

Redmond, WA: At an unusual press conference held this Sunday morning, Bill Taylor, Microsoft's General Manager of Platform Strategy, announced that after much research into the causes of security holes and instabilities, Microsoft will eliminate mutable variables from the .NET platform and its languages, including C# and VB.NET. "One of our top researchers found that mutable variables were the major root cause preventing us from achieving the great user experience we always strive to deliver," said Taylor. "Once we realized that, eliminating them from .NET was a no-brainer."

Given that this announcement was made on a Sunday, reactions have been limited so far, but one prominent VB.NET developer commented that "Compared to the switch from VB6 to VB.NET, this ought to be a breeze." A C# developer was heard to say, "After anonymous delegates, monads shouldn't be a problem."

To ensure wide penetration of this significant update, Microsoft will be issuing updated Windows CDs to all licensed customers, free of charge. The new CDs can be identified by the distinctive holographic "Haskell Inside" logo, featuring a holographic version of this portrait of Simon Peyton-Jones, grinning from ear to ear.

LtU readers are encouraged to share any inside info they may have about this move!

The Future of LtU

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:11:24 -0500

Recently the homepage is almost dead, and the discussions about important papers that are mentioned on the home page almost non-existent.

I am sad to say that if this continues LtU will fade away - something I am sure none of us wants.

This is a cry for help. If you are an editor, please try to post news you come across that might interest the LtU community. Take part in the discussions (you don't have to participate in all of them! participating in discussions on "static typing" is optional...) If you are an editor, are reading LtU, but haven't posted in a long time, don't feel you have become an outsider. You are still part of the team, and I for one am interested in what you might want to share. I know some long time editors got discouraged for various reasons -- I think now is a good time to return and reshape things to what they used to be.

If you are a regular reader and participate in the forum regularly, if you think you understand the spirit of LtU, how about signing up to become an editor? The process is simple (basically, you have to email me and that's it).

Many of you have personal blogs, and they are great resources. I still think the LtU community effort had an additional value it'd be a shame to lose. If you agree - post!

Finally, if you are a programming language scholar, and are reading and enjoying LtU - how about signing up to be a guest blogger?

Busy, busy, busy

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:40:11 -0500

As you can probably deduce from the lack of posts, I am extremely busy. Real life is taking its toll.

I implore the other editors to take charge.

Knock knock...

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 10:55:49 -0400

It has been awhile since I saw anything new from many of the oldtime LtU editors, and I am beginning to feel worried...

As you may know this is the beginning of the Jewish year (Shana tova to y'all!), so now is a good time to begin posting with renewed strength...

Vacation

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:29:52 -0400

I am going to be away until the end of next week. I hope you enjoy yourselves while I am gone.

Early retirement?

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:09:59 -0400

Are all the editors on vacation, or is this a case of mass early retirement?

It has been awhile since we had a decent curry-howard story, but at this point I am sure any good link you have lying around is going to be appreciated.

Busy, busy, busy

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:49:28 -0400

As you can understand from the lack of new posts, I am extremely busy (and I do mean extremely).

I hope the LtU editorial team will find interesting new stuff to post until I manage to resurface...

LtU turns six!

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:51:00 -0400

Another year gone! What a year it has been: so many new ideas, members and occasional guests it will take a year to mention them all.

This year LtU traffic grew in an unprecedented way, and at some points along the way it seemed like we may be losing our collective identity. The LtU community was never a formal organization, of course: You are a member if you consider yourself one and contribute to the community in whatever way you find appropriate. Too many people stopping by to ask one question and leaving soon after can hurt the community. I am glad to say that the LtU community proved strong enough to handle the surge in new users, and indeed managed to persuade many of the newcomers to stay as regular members. Several prominent researchers in the field began posting here occasionally, without having to be invited. It is an honour having them among us, and I will of course try to get them to guest blog when I get the chance. It is quite fun to see that most interesting questions raised about new papers are answered by the authors or their graduate students.

The cordial nature of the LtU community, even if sometimes obscured by rants and bickering, managed to prevail and keep LtU a nice place to visit even as traffic increased and the number of new members signing up daily became astonishing.

From day one I saw LtU as a community. As such it is incredibly important to me that LtU is not just informative and has members with diverse backgrounds and skills, but is also friendly and helpful. I will not mention the specific members who always go out of their way to help when others raise questions or ask for assistance. We all know who you are. In my mind you are the gold members of the LtU community.

A new Lambda-year is about to begin, and it's great to feel certain that next year is going to be as instructive and challenging as the year just ending.

Onward and upward!

LtU: Policies document

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:01:47 -0400

In the wake of recent events we decided it is time to hash out a document trying to establish some basic rules of behaviour for LtU discussions.

I've enhanced the FAQ and we have created two new pages. First, there is a new policies page which tries to give some basic ground rules which should help orient new members and be useful in group moderation (i.e., the process in which old timers mentor new members on the appropriate style for LtU discussion by commenting on their posts). The second page, nicknamed the spirit page contains a set of quotes taken from the statements of LtU members over the years which may help explain the way many of us see LtU, and why we care about it both as a discussion venue and a community.

I should emphasize that the goal of these documents is not to change LtU. The goal is to strengthen those traits that made LtU what it is, and try to reduce the friction cause by misunderstandings. Thus the policies document is rather conservative and is mainly a summary of ideas posted previously.

LtU is a community site, and as I am quoted as saying in the spirit page the longer you are a member and contributor the larger the impact you have on the topics under discussion and on the nature of the site in general. Thus, this post is meant to encourage members to raise the voices and tell me what they think of the policies document. It is obviously meant as a draft, for the community to respond to. Let us know if you think something is missing, overstated or simply not to your tastes. I remind you that the goal at this point is not to change the direction of LtU, so if you don't like LtU this is definitely not the opportunity to try and change it. However if you feel you are a member of the community, this is your chance to help.

Finally, let me thank Anton who did most of the hard work putting these pages together. Without his help I wouldn't have managed to get these documents out of the door. While Anton did most of the work, I am of course to blame for anything you might find objectionable.

LtU: blog not forum!

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:59:39 -0400

Hi all,
During recent weeks LtU changed its behaviour so much that I can hardly recognize it. Instead of focusing on the high quality items chosen by the contributing editors and posted to the homepage, most activity is in the forum which is starting to resemble comp.lang.misc. This change is partly the result of a couple of new and prolific members, but it seems many regulars enjoy these long threads, which to me seem rather pointless, and indeed want LtU to be more like USENET than like a group blog. I mentioned my concern in the specific threads I found problematic, so you can take a look and see the specific items I think are problematic for LtU.

As a recent message here said bluntly, LtU was created initially by me, but belongs to the entire community. This is not just true today: From early days I made sure LtU was a community site, and not my own personal playground. Thus, I feel reluctant to step in and end the threads that seem to me to be un-LtU like. I urge members to read our previous discussions about LtU's style and goals, including the suggestion that members publicly raise their concerns about items that seem inappropriate for LtU.

Due to my feelings regarding the current situation and similar concerns raised by others we are considering instituting several new measures.

One specific measure which we are considering adopting is that new forum topics posted by new members will be held for approval by moderators. The moderators could include the existing Contributing Editors, but we could also invite other respected LtU members to act as moderators, if it proves necessary. Note that this refers to items created using the "(new topic)" option. At this point we are not suggesting moderating comments on existing threads and homepage items. Members repeatedely violating our regular guidelines will be expelled or put on probation in the same way the happens today (a measure we adopted after the last round of etiquette discussions). This is an extreme measure and happens very rarely.

There's also a need for more explicit site policies, to help make it clear what is and isn't appropriate. This will help in ongoing moderation efforts, since in cases where a discussion is going off track, it is easier if an attempt at moderation can simply point to a specific, documented site policy. Any suggestions for site policies from LtU regulars are more than welcome, of course.

One policy which clearly seems needed is that we should try to avoid ungrounded discussions: discussions in which someone defends an idea that they haven't clearly described, and for which there are no existing references. We should not be playing "twenty questions" with people who haven't taken the trouble to express themselves clearly - it's unproductive, and tends to reduce the quality of discussion. LtU is best used to discuss ideas that were published and argued elsewhere. It is not usually a good place for design discussions and the like.

I'd like to hear what other members think. If long time members agree with me, and with the couple of other people who emailed their concern, I think it should be possible to return to the high quality of discussions we've come to expect on LtU. If, however, most members prefer the current situation, we will need to think carefully about the future direction and organization of the site.

Ehud

P.S
I remind readers that it is possible to simply read the homepage (I do it via RSS), and skip the LtU forum entirely.