While the (unintentional? …suuure) characterization of Talk as such certainly often seems fitting, it’s also a good argument for not coronating it as the authoritative source of “official” business.
The discussions that occur here are not because it is the “official communication forum” (whether one means the “official forum for communication” or the “forum for official communication,” which it seems people are using basically interchangeably as it suits their argument), but because it is the only place for things to be discussed in anything other than an instantaneous on-the-spot fashion. (Forum-style, if you will.) So it may be de facto, but that is due to there simply being no other available alternative at all.
Fine by me, frankly – except that sometimes, trying to deal with every kind of communication we’d want or need in one medium can at times make us that guy in the workshop that’s using a wrench as a hammer. (Dude. Quit that. There are a BUNCH OF HAMMERS.) Or worse – using a soldering iron to melt plastic.
Not that we’re going to actually start using, say, an issue tracker again any time soon – but it would still be nice to have a separate “official news/announcements” source (as per https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/wtb-makerspace-happenings-the-executive-summary/22467). Among other things, it would help greatly with one of the many hurdles to new member involvement of not being able to easily get the latest information on the goings-on with equipment and committees… let’s not kid, the wiki is super useful but not exactly universally and consistently timely, all “shouldas” aside.
And yes, this may also be related to my having again spent two hours today wading through Talk trying to catch up on less than two weeks’ worth of posts and separate the signal from the noise… it’s not just new members that this would help! Sure, there are some folks who will keep suffering through this exercise no matter what. But if the “community” we claim to want to foster in the 'Space and bring new people into is dependent on going through all of Talk to stay current and not feel like an outsider, we’re doing that goal a disservice. If a local PTA can pull off a newsletter-like set of updates once a month, the bulk of our membership that doesn’t have a Talk account can hardly be faulted for expecting something a little more distilled and well-curated from us than what we currently provide as far as “latest news and updates.”