We explicitly want to avoid a newbie "trap" See the summary of the discussion that lead to the channel creation http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/IRC_channel/Phase_2 -- Don DekuDekuplex:

On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:15:48 +0000, Philippa Cowderoy wrote:

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[...]

If you need to know how to use monads so you can do IO, #haskell-in-depth isn't the place. On the other hand, if you want to discuss how Haskell's monads compare to the category theory or what the category theory can tell us about how individual monads relate to the language as a whole, -in-depth is a good place! In particular, we're hoping that the kind of category theory discussions that give the mistaken impression you actually need to know CT will increasingly live in #haskell-in-depth.

We're not after a theory channel though - architectural discussion, compiler implementation, possible type system extensions, library design, all are good subjects.

Great work! I look forward to participating sometime in the near future.

In that case, for people who need to know how to use monads so that they can do IO, why not create a #haskell-beginners channel? I have occasionally read posts of some users who were hesitant to participate in #haskell until they learned enough to keep up with the discussions there. If neither #haskell nor #haskell-in-depth is appropriate, perhaps they would feel more comfortable in a Haskell-beginners-specific channel?

-- Benjamin L. Russell -- Benjamin L. Russell / DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/ Translator/Interpreter / Mobile: +011 81 80-3603-6725 "Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto." -- Matsuo Basho^

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On Wed, 4 Feb 2009 09:35:03 +0000, Dougal Stanton wrote:

On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 5:32 AM, Benjamin L. Russell wrote:

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If neither #haskell nor #haskell-in-depth is appropriate, perhaps they would feel more comfortable in a Haskell-beginners-specific channel?

The danger with that is the only people who go there are beginners looking for advice. Without advisers also, it would quickly wither.

How has the beginners' mailing list worked out, in this regard? At least with a ML it's possible to set aside some part of the day to answering questions... the same is not really possible for 5-hour-old conversations on IRC.

It seems to have been working out quite well. Last month, there were a total of 57 threads, including 192 messages in Haskell-Beginners. Most questions get responses within a few minutes. You can see the archives for last month at http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/beginners/2009-January/thread.html . -- Benjamin L. Russell -- Benjamin L. Russell / DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/ Translator/Interpreter / Mobile: +011 81 80-3603-6725 "Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto." -- Matsuo Basho^