Ponder how to write a Discourse importer for the nix-dev mailing list

[boxofrox]

Store files for the importer in ./importer/mailing-list.

Document the importer's use in ./docs/import-mailing-list.md.

Obtain the mailing list archives from docs/obtain-mailing-list-archive.md.

Use the Discourse API [1] to import the mailing list.

[1]: https://docs.discourse.org

Import Goals:

• Group imported topics under discourse category nix-devel.
  • Keep mailing list imports separate from google docs imports?
• Does Discourse require a valid user for each topic/post?
  • Follow-up: Automatically creating Discourse user accounts from mailing list emails.
  • Follow-up: Disable unregistered accounts created by importer.
    • After importer creates accounts, can mailing list users recover the accounts?

Discuss

OP subject to change. If you can think of anything else, submit a comment and I'll update the OP.

Once finalized, a new issue will be created to track progress for coding/documenting the importer.

[zimbatm]

In regards to the categories, I will create a new "nix-devel" category dedicated for the archive. If some topics get revived then they can be re-categorized by hand.