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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] Aaron "don't wait;
From:       "Carl Symons" <carlsymons () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-07-07 18:13:48
Message-ID: 5f87e3160807071113t3edd507fid6488daa6dc7eebd () mail ! gmail ! com
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> Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 16:04:41 -0600
> From: "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo@kde.org>
> Subject: Re: [kde-promo] What I may be good for

[There's a feeling that]
> it is not only Ok to be upset, but there's an attached right to then share your
> bitterness on the internet to, say, your nearest aseigo.
> 
> that is not an acceptable situation.
> 
> that will make the people involved
> on the complaining side look very pathetic when we look back at it a few years
> from now.
> 
> the decisions we made were, to this day, still
> holding up as good ones.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is
no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
                  --Theodore Roosevelt (1910)


> as you have hopefully figured out by this point in the email, this is not a
> problem of PR. the PR issue is a symptom, and no amount of PR spin or
> management will fix it at this point. the disease is a community with a lack of
> processes for communication and stakeholder interfaces, a lack of safe haven
> and no agreed upon ground rules for interaction. the PR issue merely grew out
> of that.
> 
> this same problem reaches out to our blogs, to bugs.kde.org, to web forum
> discussions and to kde mailing lists. it is everywhere social interaction
> happens.
> 
> Aaron J. Seigo
> 


> Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:01:05 +0200
> From: Malte Dik <malte.dik@web.de>
> Hi,
> 
> Aaron J. Seigo schrieb:
> > On Sunday 06 July 2008, blackbelt jones wrote:
> > > People are really upset.
> > 
> > and this, really, is the heart of the matter.
> > 
> > people are upset.
> 
> Where do you two dig all those upset people up? I haven't met one single upset
> person yet - and I have met a lot of people interested in KDE 4.
> 
similar to my experience at the local LUG last Friday.

Same with LinuxFest Northwest (www.linuxfestnorthwest.org) at the end
of April. Zonker Brockmeier (OpenSUSE community manager) had a full
room (the largest room at the Fest). He didn't have all the answers,
but he did have enthusiasm and commitment. There was a person who
knows everything about everything, but didn't understand the
implications of Phonon or Solid. "Why would anyone want that?"
Fortunately, there as someone there who was smart AND creative who
said "What if you wanted to do _______________?" (Don't remember the
details). Mr. All-The-Answers got a surprised look and then listened
to the rest of the presentation. Afterwards, those two had their heads
together scheming.

> Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 16:30:57 -0600
> From: "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo@kde.org>
> go read SJVN's recent blogs for a great example of a high profile person
> exhibiting the behaviour we're talking about.
> 
> yes, there are lots and lots of happy people.
> 
> there are some that aren't, however, and right now those are the ones that are
> setting the tone and content of the discussion in every single online forum,
> from developer lists to blogs that get picked up by linuxtoday.com.
> 
> the happy people? they haven't been doing a thing to fix that.
> 
> that is the heart of the problem, and the happy people are risking the future
> of what they are happy with by standing by and doing nothing. really, there
> shouldn't be much that needs doing. which makes the whole situation even more
> absurd: it's a bunch of relatively small issues that need addressing.
> 
> the *good* news is that people are starting to move on things. it took a
> pretty rude awakening for that movement to start, but now we have a code of
> conduct being draft, work on documentation and FAQs, a commitment to sane
> moderation on places like theDot and our mailing lists, etc.
> 
> my point is that instead of trying to tackle the "PR problem" directly, it is
> those activities that will make the community work better that will end up
> preventing these issues from arising again.
> 
> Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 19:50:47 -0600
> From: "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo@kde.org>
> 
> and i never asked for permission to do it or even tried to coordinate with
> anyone, really. after seeing the same issues come up again and again and
> clearing the idea with some of the other people in kde (via irc, actually): i
> just did it. wasn't even on a kde.org domain or a kde server. it used to get
> thousands of visitors daily. the moral there for me was: communicate
> intentions, but don't wait. just do things. =)
> 
> --
> Aaron J. Seigo

I'm a not-very-technical user who is enthusiastic about what is
already available in KDE 4 and excited about the possibilities and
growth opportunities that it provides. The naysayers can be
disconcerting; they can't be allowed to prevail.

To me "don't wait...just do things" has meant pushing for a high
profile KDE 4 presentation at LinuxFest NW and presenting several
times at the LUG meetings. There is probably more, but I don't know
what else to do. I like the "fight the smears" idea. To counteract the
mis/dis-information, but even more as a focal point or locus for
active advocacy. Example, I only just found out about and read the
SJVN blog posting. If there was a means for finding out where social
interaction is happening &  what is needed, it would be useful.

I see the vision and elegance of KDE 4, the work that has gone into
bringing it to reality, and want to do what I can to support it.

Carl Symons
 
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