New Section: Brainstorming

Sometimes people have new ideas, but they are not language programmers or know Python deeply.

Help section is too broad, since it’s a generic help for Python.
But it’s too loud to post brainstorming in Ideas section, since this section is followed by Python devs.

What do you think about a new section?

Doesn’t the ideas section fill that niche?

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I quote myself:

If it’s “too loud” to post brainstorming ideas in Ideas, why do you think anyone will join a category that’s intended to be for “too loud” ideas?

Maybe what you really want is to make your ideas a bit more focused before posting them? Which is generally considered good etiquette anyway, as you’re expecting a lot of people to spend time reading what you say, so it’s only polite to put some effort into making your posts clear and to the point.

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In addition to what Paul wrote, why would you want a place where you seem to want to exclude the people who know the most about Python, its internals and its ecosystem?

I don’t want to exclude devs. I think devs are a little annoyed about brainstorming of newbies.

If devs want to read the “brainstorming” section they can of course, as any section in the forum, but I suppose they want to skip it altogether until:

  • the idea is mature enough to be proposed in the Idea section, or
  • you find the idea has another solution, or
  • you discard the idea

PS: I have to admit I also like the Brainstorming section as a more relaxed place to discuss new ideas. The first time I posted an idea (yet another switch-case syntax), in the mailing list, I wrote in the wrong list (generic help). Some people said to me “Okay, it’s not the correct place, but maybe it’s better to write here first, because it’s a more friendly place”. And when I posted in the Idea section, one of the major devs wrote “I think Python has better priorities, but I leave the space to the other devs, whom are more severe than me” :smiley:

I don’t know if the core devs are annoyed by brainstorming ideas.
If they feel annoyed it’s likely because they

  • Wrote a short answer because they didn’t want spend much time on it, or
  • They wrote a, to them, neutral response, which is often perceived negative by the receiver.

Given the trainwreck that the python-ideas mailing-list often turned out to be, this sounds like a rather counter-productive idea. Why encourage “newbies” (your term) to waste their time brainstorming on things that will never come to fruition?

This isn’t friendly to core contributors, and this isn’t friendly to “newbies” either.

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I have to say that I think the problem here may be your style of writing. Not all ideas posts go off the rails, but your suggestions (in my experience) seem to do so more often than most. So maybe an initial way of trying to deal with the issue might be to change your style a bit?

In general, I think most people want proposals that are a bit better thought out than the sort of “brainstorming” you’re suggesting (and that your posts sometimes seem to represent).

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I’m not suggesting this section only for me. I lurked ideas a lot, and it seems to me a common problem.

Don’t see Brainstorming as a lesser Idea section, but as an Help section for understanding.