No-one has tried to make this one happen in almost three years. Should I
interpret this as a sign that there is not sufficient interest? I'm marking this
as resolved for now, but if anyone would like to see this happen and is willing
to help implement it, they should feel free to reopen.

Regarding the email issue, see e.g. msg1761. The setup in Basel could be
different, though. I guess we can look into that later, too.

PS: Even if we don't set up the list now, we can start on the code that produces
the messages, of course. Whoever works on this, feel free to use my addresses as
for tests if you need to do tests.

I've asked around. It should be rather easy to set up a mailman list here in
Basel similar to the downward-dev list in Freiburg. I'd suggest creating the new
notifications list here, and maybe at some later point move the existing
downward-dev list to Basel, too. (There's no need to hurry that, though.) I
think there's no great need to hurry here, so I propose waiting with this until
December when our group size here will double. ;-)

One thing that has been technically more challenging in the past is *sending*
the emails, i.e. having a valid "From" address to use. In some cases, I've been
using my own email address (but in some/many setups that requires storing my
main password somewhere where it shouldn't be, in plain text); in other cases,
I've generated gmail addresses, which isn't optimal either. Any suggestions for
this?

I'd prefer to leave the current mailing list to humans. The open-source projects
I know all separate discussion channels from notification channels.

I think the main advantage of using a Google Groups list is that it's easy to
set up and administrate. If someone could take care of these tasks for a
self-managed mailing list, then that advantage would disappear.

The idea is to separate the automated notifications (most of which nobody cares 
about) and the messages to downward developers (which should interest everyone).
Spamming downward-dev with automated notifications and asking everyone to filter 
by subject is not a good idea.

I'm certainly not fixated on google groups, but we already have the fast-
downward group there. I wouldn't mind using another service which can also 
archive the messages - does anyone know anything like that?

Still, a normal mailing list should do. With a google group everybody needs a
google account and I know at least one person in the planning community who does
not want that (and whom I would not like to exclude).

If the plan is to make the messages filterable by standard subject lines, why
can't we simply use the downward-dev list?

> Alternatively, we could put this information on the wiki in an automated
> fashion, then everybody can subscribe to exactly the information he wants

Different types of messages would have standard subject lines to make them
trivial to filter.

Alternatively, we could put this information on the wiki in an automated
fashion, then everybody can subscribe to exactly the information he wants (e.g.
I am not so much a statistics addict that I need an automated update on the
number of recently closed issues).

For context: This was originally brought up in issue133.

Why would we need a google group for that? Sounds like a normal mailing list
would be sufficient...

The idea is to create a google group called fast-downward-notifications.
Then any automated message, such as:
1. new issues added to the tracker
2. regular status reports on the tracker (number of open issues, issues
  opened/closed recently, etc.)
3. buildbot failures
4. possibly commit messages
5. summary of automated test results

could be sent to the group, and anyone interested can subscribe.
For now, I'm thinking a closed group of the core developers (people in this 
issue).

Any thoughts on this?