On 8/16/06, Waldemar Kornewald <wkornew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On 8/16/06, Urias McCullough <umccullough@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Forums are great places to "chit-chat" amongst community members in a > very abstract way. The one thing I would definitely clarify here is > that the forums should be nothing official. They can serve as an > informal area to meet and discuss with other haiku community members - > but not a place to make any decisions or official announcements. If > that was made clear, I think they could still be useful in the future > as an "extra" that the community gets if they desire it.
I think that the HUGs or some central community site (in multiple languages, replacing the current HUGs?) should be responsible for this. The community site could offer additional services (Michael always mentioned ".Mac"). Just some examples: * email accounts with AJAX-based very easy to use webmail client (maybe reusing concepts from googlemail) * address book * sync your Haiku address book and appointments with the community site * maybe a BFS-like network file system service (Ingo is developing a network FS add-on) * share files, contacts, emails, appointments with other members * collaborate (VoIP?, desktop sharing, remote access, plan meetings, ...) * community projects * software repos (like BeBits, but integrated with an automated Haiku update service and focused on freeware and open-source) * SpreadHaiku and other marketing related work (representing the official Haiku Marketing Project) * board for non-developer volunteers (translate, document, test, etc.) * personal community blog (my experience with Haiku) * secret Haiku tricks and how to become more productive * your personal Haiku Community homepage
Yes, I think a distinctly separate "community involvement" site would be acceptable. I very much like that idea.
Many of the things you listed are exciting as well - and I think this is where "Marketing" starts to enter the picture. A community with lots of neat "features" is very attractive to developers and users alike. Even if Haiku isn't ready yet, many of those features can attract would-be users now! The problem I see with a couple of those is that they will also attract people not interested in Haiku, but just interested in the "free email address and file hosting" features...
The wiki is nice because more people start contributing, but seriously, the content is not very high quality and it's often too hard to find. The problem is that *anyone* can contribute. It's not at all organized.
I think Ar1000 said it well in a forum post: "The wiki is like a farm, where we grow content."
This is very true - it's a good place for a bunch of people to add details and information easily and quickly. The "Using Haiku Images" page is a good example where it has grown to include new ways to boot the image in different virtual machines by various contributors. This information can now be digested into a "how-to" article if desired.
On the other hand, I definitely understand the "chaotic" nature of the wiki is less desirable - and the inevitable "duplication of effort" that will ensue. I think, however, that if we moved the wiki out of the official site, and any time wiki content is refined and "converted" to an article - the responsible person can update the wiki page to point to the article. Could it be manageable, and understood simply as an unofficial "farm" of content? Maybe it's best if the wiki just became a feature of the community in the end... where people could put together unofficial FAQs and the community could self-moderate.
