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List:       opensuse
Subject:    [opensuse] Web-forums hosted @ opensuse.org (was: june 13 meeting transcript)
From:       Pascal Bleser <pascal.bleser () skynet ! be>
Date:       2006-06-23 22:47:43
Message-ID: 449C6F8F.5010801 () skynet ! be
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Keith Kastorff wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-06-23 at 08:15 +0200, jdd wrote:
>> In short, if I understand well, solutions should come soon :-)

jdd, I'm not sure it's a solution, nor anything to ":-)" about.

> Solutions in some cases, that fail to pass the test of a fair
> process...I posted a long time back some questions that were never
> answered with regards to a new forum. I'd question any decision making
> process that fails to identify it's mechanism and ultimate decision
> maker, as well as ignoring valid commentary and questions from those
> parties most affected.
> 
> Whose agenda is being reflected in this undocumented decision making
> process? If I knew who to talk to (who is making the final decision),
> I'd be glad to dialog privately.

That would be Sonja I guess ;)

Nevertheless, to summarize the situation that has been languishing for
several months now, after our very unsuccessful discussion on that topic:
- - we discussed it for many weeks, going into every possible direction
(except the right ones, possibly)
- - we failed to get the maintainers of existing SUSE forums onto the
list... well.. partly... some of them were just not interested
- - there hasn't been a proper discussion of the topic *with* the current
forum maintainers

The situation is far from being simple, we had it up and down and all
over again.

Basically, on one hand:
- - having a "centralized"/"official" forums.opensuse.org has several
benefits, including that it's a natural fit for new users, as the
current split of forums (suseforums.net, suselinuxsupport.de,
opensuse.us - only to mention the largest english-speaking ones) is not
an advantage (for new users), at least IMVHO
- - the fact that it would be hosted by Novell has both advantages (no
risks of getting closed, moved, taken over, sold, whatever) and
drawbacks (the content that may be discussed on those forums)

On the other hand,
- - it would possibly alienate existing forum maintainers, the people who
have stepped up in the past and put a lot of hard work and time into
building those forums and the communities around it
- - the fact that it's hosted by Novell poses a few legal issues, like.. I
guess it's not really a good idea to discuss stuff like mplayer, mad,
lame & friends over there or even.. you know, that other one I wouldn't
even want to mention on this list (starts with "lib", ends with "ss")

The alternative would be to "elect" the largest existing forum of each
language as the "official" one.
But, Keith, you know even better than I that it's at the very least an
unsolvable issue with english-speaking forums.

So, frankly, I wouldn't know what poison to choose.

Keith, what would you suggest ?
Keep it as it is, with 2-3 larger english-speaking forums ?

What about the other web forum maintainers/active members who are on
this list ?
Viras> ping

To me, the biggest issue is actually that there aren't much people from
those web forums around on the opensuse mailing-lists.
Whatever way we'll choose, the most important thing is to be in touch
and distill interesting information and news into both directions.
I've always seen this mailing-list as a link between projects and
communities (including web forums) around (open)SUSE, but after all,
maybe I'm the only one seeing it that way ;)

As we've been unable to come up with some form of decision, Sonja's
action item is to have "official" web forums hosted on opensuse.org, and
then we'll just see how it goes.

I'm not really happy with the situation/decision either, but although
I've tried a few times to get something out of that topic by putting the
discussion back on target, nothing useful came out.

cheers
- --
  -o) Pascal Bleser     http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/
  /\\ <pascal.bleser@skynet.be>       <guru@unixtech.be>
 _\_v The more things change, the more they stay insane.
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