Обсуждение: Hackorum - a new mailing list frontend

Hello!

Last year at pgconf.dev there was a discussion about improving the
user interface for the hackers mailing list. Based on that discussion,
I would like to share a small project we have been working on for some
time:

https://hackorum.dev/

Hackorum provides a read-only (for now) web view of the mailing list
with a more forum-like presentation. It already includes a number of
useful features, such as:

* continuous mailing list synchronization (the site is subscribed to the list)
* commitfest integration (synchronized once per day)
* per-message read status for logged-in users
* user profiles, including contributor/committer status from the main website
* statistics
* additional logged-in user features (starring threads, tags, notes,
mentions on messages and threads)
* basic team support (sharing reading status, mentioned tags and notes)
* integrating the "resend email" feature from the official archive
* importing read status / tags from CSV files (to help migration from
email based workflows)

And the main features we plan to implement in the near future:

* sending emails using the web ui (initially using the gmail api for
users logged in with their google account, who also separately
authorized sending messages)
* advanced search functionality
* integrating other mailing lists

At this stage, we are mainly interested in feedback: whether this is
useful at all, and if you have suggestions on how it could be improved
(bug fixes, new features, changes in behavior, etc.). Contributions
are of course also welcome; we have tried to make the development
setup easy to work with:

https://github.com/Percona-Lab/hackorum

Hi!

I took a quick look and here a couple of things I've found:

- Threads with more than a couple of messages take a very long time to
load (many dozens of seconds).
- The search is also relatively slow.
- I find it difficult to match the thread outline to the actual message.
Making a visual connection between the thread outline and the currently
viewed message would be helpful.

David

On 16.01.2026 15:29, Zsolt Parragi wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> Last year at pgconf.dev there was a discussion about improving the
> user interface for the hackers mailing list. Based on that discussion,
> I would like to share a small project we have been working on for some
> time:
> 
> https://hackorum.dev/
> 
> Hackorum provides a read-only (for now) web view of the mailing list
> with a more forum-like presentation. It already includes a number of
> useful features, such as:
> 
> * continuous mailing list synchronization (the site is subscribed to the list)
> * commitfest integration (synchronized once per day)
> * per-message read status for logged-in users
> * user profiles, including contributor/committer status from the main website
> * statistics
> * additional logged-in user features (starring threads, tags, notes,
> mentions on messages and threads)
> * basic team support (sharing reading status, mentioned tags and notes)
> * integrating the "resend email" feature from the official archive
> * importing read status / tags from CSV files (to help migration from
> email based workflows)
> 
> And the main features we plan to implement in the near future:
> 
> * sending emails using the web ui (initially using the gmail api for
> users logged in with their google account, who also separately
> authorized sending messages)
> * advanced search functionality
> * integrating other mailing lists
> 
> At this stage, we are mainly interested in feedback: whether this is
> useful at all, and if you have suggestions on how it could be improved
> (bug fixes, new features, changes in behavior, etc.). Contributions
> are of course also welcome; we have tried to make the development
> setup easy to work with:
> 
> https://github.com/Percona-Lab/hackorum
> 
> 

Thanks for trying it out so quickly!

> - Threads with more than a couple of messages take a very long time to
> load (many dozens of seconds).
> - The search is also relatively slow.

There was a load spike after I sent this message, normally it
shouldn't be that slow. Usually even the longest threads load under a
second. I'm keeping an eye on that now, but so far it seems like a
one-time thing, not a persistent issue.

On Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 02:29:41PM +0000, Zsolt Parragi wrote:
> Last year at pgconf.dev there was a discussion about improving the
> user interface for the hackers mailing list. Based on that discussion,
> I would like to share a small project we have been working on for some
> time:
> 
> https://hackorum.dev/

Nice!

> Hackorum provides a read-only (for now) web view of the mailing list
> with a more forum-like presentation. It already includes a number of
> useful features, such as:
> 
> * continuous mailing list synchronization (the site is subscribed to the list)
> * commitfest integration (synchronized once per day)
> * per-message read status for logged-in users
> [...]

This one feature in particular is very nice.  I wonder if you can make
it so you can subscribe in the sense of being an approved sender but not
in the sense of getting copies sent.

A read-only IMAP/JMAP server might also be nice, especially if it could
mark messages as read/replied-to/marked like this.  But yeah, the web
interface is not limited by IMAP/JMAP and can do so much more.

Nico
-- 

Hello!

Thank you for all the feedback so far!



David Geier <geidav.pg@gmail.com> wrote:

> - Threads with more than a couple of messages take a very long time to load

While the performance stabilized after the initial issues, generally
the speed of hackorum should be a lot faster now after a few
performance fixes, both for the index and the topic views.

> - I find it difficult to match the thread outline to the actual message. Making a visual connection between the
threadoutline and the currently viewed message would be helpful.
 

Done! To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with the topic
view/outline, but I also don't know how to make it significantly
better.

For now:

* message headers include the same colors as the outline view
* the currently visible message is highlighted in the outline

I hope this helps match the two together.

If you have any other ideas, please share, maybe we can make it even better.



Marcos Pegoraro <marcos@f10.com.br> wrote:

> Maybe an option to show in descending order and show only the first 10 or 20 messages
> Sometimes there are hundreds of messages on that thread, so this way would be faster and would show the current
statusof it and not how it started.
 

We had multiple listing options in an earlier version, but it can be
confusing - the outline and the actual messages would go in a
different order.

But the idea about "showing the current status" sounds interesting,
I'm playing with the idea of some automatic grouping based on date
period (months/years) and automatically collapsing older entries
(especially if all read already) could work.



Nico Williams <nico@cryptonector.com> wrote:

> This one feature in particular is very nice.  I wonder if you can make it so you can subscribe in the sense of being
anapproved sender but not in the sense of getting copies sent.
 

I don't understand this question, subscribe where? If you mean to the
mailing list, you can turn off receiving messages in the settings, and
you can still continue sending emails. That's how I've been using the
list since I started using hackorum. If I want to reply to a new
thread where I don't have a local email yet, I'm using the "resend
email" (paper plane icon) in hackorum to get an email, and then I can
reply as normally from my email client.

> A read-only IMAP/JMAP server might also be nice, especially if it could mark messages as read/replied-to/marked like
this. But yeah, the web interface is not limited by IMAP/JMAP and can do so much more.
 

IMAP/JMAP are also much more complex than just marking messages read,
I'm not sure how well that would work out. For now, we have the CSV
import option, and I plan to release a downloadable script in the near
future that generates CSVs using IMAP for initial status import.



Other than the performance fix and outline change I mentioned above,
hackorum now also has a button to download the latest patchset as a
single tar.gz file for every topic.

There is also a downloadable script that helps with adding it to a
local git checkout automatically, works with all attachments, doesn't
require a commitfest entry. It's available and documented at:
https://hackorum.dev/help/hackorum-patch

I've reworked the mobile view, so it should now be way easier to use
on smaller screens.

Please let me know how it looks and behaves, and if anyone is missing
anything, I'd be happy to help.

Kai

On Sat, Jan 17, 2026 at 10:28 PM Zsolt Parragi
<zsolt.parragi@percona.com> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> Thank you for all the feedback so far!
>
>
>
> David Geier <geidav.pg@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > - Threads with more than a couple of messages take a very long time to load
>
> While the performance stabilized after the initial issues, generally
> the speed of hackorum should be a lot faster now after a few
> performance fixes, both for the index and the topic views.
>
> > - I find it difficult to match the thread outline to the actual message. Making a visual connection between the
threadoutline and the currently viewed message would be helpful. 
>
> Done! To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with the topic
> view/outline, but I also don't know how to make it significantly
> better.
>
> For now:
>
> * message headers include the same colors as the outline view
> * the currently visible message is highlighted in the outline
>
> I hope this helps match the two together.
>
> If you have any other ideas, please share, maybe we can make it even better.
>
>
>
> Marcos Pegoraro <marcos@f10.com.br> wrote:
>
> > Maybe an option to show in descending order and show only the first 10 or 20 messages
> > Sometimes there are hundreds of messages on that thread, so this way would be faster and would show the current
statusof it and not how it started. 
>
> We had multiple listing options in an earlier version, but it can be
> confusing - the outline and the actual messages would go in a
> different order.
>
> But the idea about "showing the current status" sounds interesting,
> I'm playing with the idea of some automatic grouping based on date
> period (months/years) and automatically collapsing older entries
> (especially if all read already) could work.
>
>
>
> Nico Williams <nico@cryptonector.com> wrote:
>
> > This one feature in particular is very nice.  I wonder if you can make it so you can subscribe in the sense of
beingan approved sender but not in the sense of getting copies sent. 
>
> I don't understand this question, subscribe where? If you mean to the
> mailing list, you can turn off receiving messages in the settings, and
> you can still continue sending emails. That's how I've been using the
> list since I started using hackorum. If I want to reply to a new
> thread where I don't have a local email yet, I'm using the "resend
> email" (paper plane icon) in hackorum to get an email, and then I can
> reply as normally from my email client.
>
> > A read-only IMAP/JMAP server might also be nice, especially if it could mark messages as read/replied-to/marked
likethis.  But yeah, the web interface is not limited by IMAP/JMAP and can do so much more. 
>
> IMAP/JMAP are also much more complex than just marking messages read,
> I'm not sure how well that would work out. For now, we have the CSV
> import option, and I plan to release a downloadable script in the near
> future that generates CSVs using IMAP for initial status import.
>
>
>
> Other than the performance fix and outline change I mentioned above,
> hackorum now also has a button to download the latest patchset as a
> single tar.gz file for every topic.
>
> There is also a downloadable script that helps with adding it to a
> local git checkout automatically, works with all attachments, doesn't
> require a commitfest entry. It's available and documented at:
> https://hackorum.dev/help/hackorum-patch
>
>