I subscribed to caml-list for a few weeks. I didn't find the discussions intersected with my learning needs. For instance, much of the teaching in the OCaml community appears to be classroom-oriented. I saw at least 3 conferences or workshops announced, and a MOOC, but no github lesson pages (for lack of a better term) or blogs with source code examples oriented toward beginners. Discussion seemed to be focused on the language itself, and not on how to use the language to get work done (e.g. metaplugins, ppx, let rec).
My impression is that the community sets a high bar for inclusion (i.e. an academic) and that the target audience for most papers, announcements, and conferences is not "someone coming from another language or programming paradigm".
I was also disappointed to see how much resistance there was to trying new things to compete in the language mindshare space--I left with the impression that most OCaml programmers are satisfied with the way things are, and the costs outweigh the benefits in trying, for example, to set up a slack channel or a google group.
I did discover the ocaml beginner's list, but there was not much discussion ongoing there.
Thanks @fxfactorial, that's very kind of you. I'm in Utah, so kind of close on the global scale, but still a little ways away :)
I actually became interested in OCaml due to ReasonML, and still am. I'll be watching its progress.