[haiku-web] Re: Trac (reevaluated)

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 00:43 +0200, Waldemar Kornewald wrote:
> Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) wrote:
> > Sorry for the rant. Maybe I am missing something, but in spite of Haiku
> > being an open source project, I find it to be closed in the sense that
> > it does not seem to be organized to funnel the motivation of potential
> > contributors into tangible contributions.
> >
> > If you really want to grow the community, I think that fixing that
> > aspect of the organization is much more important for its success than
> > which CMS packaged is better than which.
> 
> The project is currently very losely organized. Who wants to do something just
> does it. I really wish Michael would add a news item that we're searching for
> web developers who can help with RailFrog or maybe also Trac (if Charlie and
> Miakel need help).

The fact that you are relying on the founder of the project to post a
simple piece of news tells how badly you need more help (Michael, please
take no offense). But you are not going to get the much needed new blood
with a "who wants to do something just does it" approach. This may work
for people that are very familiar with the project, and know their way
around the community, but not for the newcomers that you need if you
want to solve your chronic shortage of resources.

> If you want to help and think that you can write text that has a high
> information/noise ratio please help us. At:
> http://www.haiku-os.org/wiki/index.php?title=Website_Team
> you can find the list of pages that must be finished for the new website. Look
> what is missing and write the text. I can try to make suggestions.

I could write reasonably good copy (although English is not my mother
tongue); I am also sure that there is talent out there that could do a
good job; you may need more than one person.

But before you start writing copy, there needs to be some sort of
discussion (brainstorming if you will) to come up at least with an
outline that meets the goals of the message that the project wants to
convey through its website. Good copy can only be written with an
overall understanding of the message that you are trying to convey.

I see there is an outline under "Layout" in the wiki, but has this been
thoroughly discussed? Is the leadership of the project happy with it?

> For example, the introduction does not really satisfy me. The "what 
> does easy to
> use mean?" section should probably be moved to the top of the Human Interface
> Guidelines (as a simple summary). Also, we might add a screenshot. Basically,
> the intro should state:
> * what is Haiku?
> * who is developing it?
> * which problems does current software have?
> * what are our goals?
> * how do we want to achieve this?
> 
> There's a lot of work, but I want high-quality (and *short*) content. Not
> something that a 14-years-old child slapped together on a weekend. This is the
> reason why we're not crying for help.

If there is a lot of work, then you SHOULD be crying for help! Why
assume that only 14 year olds will volunteer? For that matter, why
assume that a 14 year old cannot do a good job?! If you want to attract
talent that can give you the quality that you want, you need to engage
potential contributors a bit more intelligently, not just assume that
only incapable people will volunteer; the "who wants to do something
just does it" approach will just not cut it.

BTW, I wish there were more teenagers involved in Haiku. They have
plenty of time and energy, and many of them have a lot of potential
talent that, with the right guidance, can be untapped for the good of
the project. I would not underestimate them.

> It's clear that as long as the English content is not finished we can't 
> work on tranlations.

It may be that I did not articulate myself well enough about this. I am
not talking about translation; that would come later. I am asking if in
the design of the new site you have taken into consideration the ability
to easily localize content. I make this question in the hope that
whatever solution is chosen, it does have provisions for content in
languages other than English at the very least, so that actually adding
support for more languages does not require another website renewal
(that could take a long time to materialize). I say this not in my own
interest, but in that of HAIKU, if the project really wants the site to
become the central focus for all HAIKU related information, that is. I
would rather see resources put into accommodating localization of
content than migrating from Bugzilla to Trac which, I have to agree with
Axel and Michael here, should be lower priority as what we have does
work adequately and there is no compelling reason to change; I think
putting all the resources of the team into creating the new site.

I realize some people are working on something, and their work is really
appreciated; but very little transpires to the outside world. How about
putting the forums to use to communicate? How about being a bit more
open? How about some team building? How about some teamwork?

Koki

PS: So, who are the web team members? What do they do?

PS2: I see that "Qunu for end-user support" has been added to the
website wiki. Is this officially endorsed by HAIKU?


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