FreeLists / haiku-web / [haiku-web] Re: Trac (reevaluated)

["Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki)" <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2006-06-11 at 17:44 +0200, Charlie Clark wrote:
> On 2006-06-10 at 18:33:54 [+0200], "Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki)" 
> <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > And since there is no "official voice",
> > people ask the same question 100 times, and you have to repeat yourself
> > as many times. This simply becomes unmanageable, not matter how much
> > effort you put into it.
> 
> This is simply not true. All of Haiku is volunteer based and works 
> according to the principle - if you want to get involved then pick up a 
> task. This is the same for the web-team. A discussion started on the main 
> list where it quickly became off-topic and it was moved off by those who 
> were prepared to do something. Haven't seen many offers of help since then.

Because it is volunteer-based, it does not mean that it cannot be
organized for better efficiency, or that it cannot become more
articulate in order to attract more talent, or that it cannot be better
organized to capture potential contributions. As someone John Drinkwater
nicely put it: "People *are* trying to help, we're just not making it
easy for them." Your chronic lack of resources will likely not go away
unless you do something about the "high learning curve" that Haiku
currently has as a project.

> > With specific regards to the website, also things considered, I am
> > thinking that it may be better to go back to the drawing board and
> > compromise on a temporary solution using a CMS package that can be
> > implemented now.
> 
> Haiku isn't an organisation and communication among developers works pretty 
> well. It's not that visible but that IMO is not a bad thing. The S:N on the 
> main list often leaves a lot to be desired. Over the last four years we've 
> seen some tremendous progress in Haiku from a very small group of committed 
> developers.

I am not questioning whether Haiku has made progress or not, nor am I
underestimating the dedication of the small group of devs. If you are
just happy to cater to this small group of established devs, then fine.
But if after all these years everybody is still crying "we need more
devs!", then it is obvious that the current principle is not working,
and that something needs to be change.

Because this is a software project, it does not mean that all you need
are devs. There are many functions in a project that are better left to
non-devs. People with various skill sets can do things in various areas
better than engineers/programmers, and their contribution allows devs to
focus on coding instead of having to take "side projects" that divert
precious resources from their main competency. My question is: what are
you going to find these people with special skill sets? It is a bit
naive to think that they will just come knock your door, and low
visibility will not help either.

> I would like to think that BeGeistert has played a part in 
> building relationships among developers.

BeGeistert is great, and you can take all the credit. :-) However, I am
not sure what it has to do with this discussion...

Lastly, I do want to let it be clear that I make my observations because
I would like to see Haiku succeed, and I do not mean to diminish anyway
the effort being made by everyone so far.

Koki


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