[haiku] Re: Haiku User Groups

  • From: "Jorge G. Mare" <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:26:23 -0700

Hi John,

John Melesky wrote:

I've only been following this list since the alpha1 release, and i'll admit 
that much of this conversation is confusing me. Are we actually considering 
dictating to user groups what they should be called and what domains they 
should use?

No, we are simply talking about guidelines, which user groups would be free to follow or not.

I understand the need for consistency in how trademarked material is handled. 
But i don't see how that extends to creating an approved look and feel to 
ensure consistency between user group websites.

This has come up because several established regional communities want to use the website theme, not because we want to impose anything on anyone. And although it is connected to the trademarks, it is not driven by the trademark policy.

<snip>

Maybe i'm thinking of user groups differently. I'm looking at it from the 
perspective of someone who has been involved in user groups for Linux, Python, 
FreeBSD, Perl, Ruby, and a handful of other programming languages and 
technologies. In all of those communities, there is little formalism, and great 
diversity in user groups, from interests to websites to group names.

Compare a few Python user group websites:
http://chipy.org/
http://pyatl.org/
http://baypiggies.net/

Completely different page designs, different url patterns. Python keeps a list 
of user groups on its main site, alongside some help at starting a new group 
(http://wiki.python.org/moin/LocalUserGroups).

Perl's another interesting example. In one sense, they're more centralized: user groups 
are called "Perl Mongers", all are offered (mail, web, and DNS) hosting 
services from http://www.pm.org/. But, again, if you look at a few individual group sites:
http://ny.pm.org/
http://chicago.pm.org/
http://pdx.pm.org/kwiki/

It's clear that they all have different interests and designs.

Yes, there are various approaches. In contrast to the projects that you mention, you have for example the case of Ubuntu, where most user groups (or LoCo teams as they call them) have a common theme; Ubuntu goes as far as providing the tools that facilitate starting a new user group in the form of a Drupal installation with custom theme and modules.

This model (offering support and advice centrally, but ultimately letting the 
groups do their own thing) seems to work well. It's certainly not the only way 
of doing things, and if we want to make things more regimented in the Haiku, 
then so be it. I just want to know why we're going about things a different way.

The reasoning for this centralized approach is not just the looks, but also the networking effect of a common interconnected navigation scheme (which the HUG theme provides).

Cheers,

--
Jorge/aka Koki
Website: http://haikuzone.net
RSS: http://haikuzone.net/rss.xml



Other related posts: