openSUSE Strategy: Community Statement

[prusnak]

Discussion about Community Statement

[prusnak]

Discussion about Community Statement

as described here: openSUSE News � A Strategy for the openSUSE Project: Proposals and Discussions

[DenverD]

this is a somewhat shortened rant from a post i made in
http://forums.opensuse.org/forums-fe...ml#post2177350


can anyone tell me why "the community" can't find a way to
include the 40,000+ members of the openSUSE forums and all users in
general as anything other than "everyone else" in the statement:

"We are the openSUSE Community - a friendly, welcoming, vibrant, and
active community. This includes developers, testers, writers,
translators, usability experts, artists, promoters and everybody else
who wishes to engage with the project."
cite: http://tinyurl.com/2ve2m94

or, maybe i missed the point: maybe "the community" has specifically
excludes those who are "just users"..

to me (my opinion) this is a *shameful* way of clearly and
specifically excluding all who contribute via the forums...all us
'everybody elses'

--
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
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CMedia 9761 AC'97 Audio

[a_jaeger]

DenverD, we have especially brought this over to the forums to not exclude them , the forums are an important part of the openSUSE project and we recognize that.

[Knurpht]

Thanks DD and Andreas, I missed "us" too during reading. Apart from that, IMO, it's a fine piece of work.

[a_jaeger]

or, maybe i missed the point: maybe "the community" has specifically
excludes those who are "just users"..

to me (my opinion) this is a *shameful* way of clearly and
specifically excluding all who contribute via the forums...all us
'everybody elses'

You raise an important question here: What is community?

Let's just use an example: If you're bird watching a bird in your garden, are you automatically part of the bird-watching community. At what point do you join the community? When you meet with others and talk about birds?

I see a clear difference between people "using" the distribution on the one hand and people discussing about it and helping others how to use it (contributors on forums/mailing lists).

This discussion was started to improve the community statement - I'm looking forward to constructive feedback how we should change it so that we get the right message out with the final version. So, how could we change it?

Andreas

[DenverD]

a jaeger wrote:
> So, how could we change it?

how about this which just slightly alters the as written:

"We are the openSUSE Community - a friendly, welcoming, vibrant, and
active community. This includes forum participants, developers,
testers, writers, translators, usability experts, artists, promoters
and everybody else who wishes to engage with the project."

NOTE: i just put 'us' first to press home the shock effect...that is,
is in what way is the order important? are testers less important than
'developers' but more important than artist?

if not why not put it in alpha order? like:

artists
developers
everybody else
forum participants
promoters
testers
translators
usability experts
writers

however 1: isn't a writer a 'developer' (of documentation)?
and, a translator a 'developer' of translated documentation?
and a promoter a 'developer' of enthusiasm and buzzzzz
an artist a developer of the necessary art work?

what i'm saying is: isn't "programmer" a more precise term to use for
what i _think_ the original meant?

to me (read: imo), it seems to take the _entire_ community to
*develop* openSUSE

however 2: can't we either define "everyone else" or just leave them
out until they holler (like i did)

here is an alpha ordered list organized by related activities:

ambassadors, evangelist, marketers and other promoters
artists and graphic designers
bug reporting testers
creative thinkers and other blue sky idealist
documentation, help and wiki writers
forum, IRC and mailing list contributors, monitors and participants
package builders
programmers
translators
usability experts

i'm sure there are still some from the group "everyone else" who
should be mentioned...but, there is my first cut at a more inclusive
and less hierarchically ordered snapshot of "the Community"..

*or* shall we stick to the notion that the only people who can be a
part of "the Community" must meet the test laid out in
http://en.opensuse.org/Members#How_to_become_a_Member
and be approved by the standing select membership committee (whoever
they are....must be a secret)

and, if only those are accepted members to be considered part of "the
Community" then why are listening to me?

--
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
posted via NNTP w/TBird 2.0.0.23 | KDE 3.5.7 | openSUSE 10.3
2.6.22.19-0.4-default SMP i686
AMD Athlon 1 GB RAM | GeForce FX 5500 | ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX |
CMedia 9761 AC'97 Audio

[consused]

When I see an unordered list preceded by the word "includes", I don't regard the order as significant, but do regard it as inclusive. IMO getting bogged down on the order is distracting from the objective of the exercise.

[consused]

as described here: openSUSE News � A Strategy for the openSUSE Project: Proposals and Discussions

Was there a mission staement defined for the project? That usually precedes strategy development (for obvious reasons). It might be helpful for us to see that.

[a_jaeger]

Was there a mission staement defined for the project? That usually precedes strategy development (for obvious reasons). It might be helpful for us to see that.

We have the guiding principles which I advise to read. Besides that, there's no explicit mission statement.

Andreas