On 8/26/06, Michael S <mikesum32@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think we are NOT having a meeting of the minds, that is to say, we aren't on the same page.
Either that or we have some ideas that are diametrically opposed, or perhaps some sort of programmers vs marcom-new-kid-on-the-block "pissing contest"
Okay, once and for all I want to explain why I do NOT want haiku-os.org to become blogspot.com.
History: Fracois Revol created a blog entry titled "let's do the bloggywoggie" which starts with his plans to write some interesting articles (nice!), but it doesn't even mention what exactly he had in mind. Then his post continues with the sad fact that SG1 (Stargate, the science-fiction series) will not be continued, anymore. He finishes with copyright issues in France. The last part is interesting, so we agreed that he rewrites the article (thanks, Francois!).
My first suggestion was to completely delete his article because it is too off-topic (I was too quick, sorry). This p***** Michael S. off. He wants our articles to be more personal. Now, let's imagine what would happen if we let everyone write his personal real-life diary on our website.
If Stargate is good enough to write about then why not also write about 4400? It's nice, too. And then someone will write about "24h", but Axel will reply with "I don't like it! X-Files is much better". Now that we already talk about TV, why not talk about hobbies? So, I'll write about me loving to ride my bike on single-trails. Then, Ingo will write an article about his holidays and Stephan will join him when he returns from his trip (hey, I still want to hear the story ;). Then someone will ask "why should not the whole world participate in this?", so we let everyone write about his progress with building a computer or how bad the restaurant next door is and how nice the new MacOS is and that Vista sucks and the new Logitech mouse is so exciting and someone's new Sony camera is cool and someone else whom nobody knows married his daughter and another one had his "coming out" and ...
Do you see where this is leading? If we let people write about everything they will do it (you can see everywhere that this is happening!). And a few sensible people might wonder why Haiku Inc. wants to compete with blogspot.com and what the "user blogs" section on our website has to do with Haiku the product. In the end there will be 1000 times more uninteresting articles in that section than anything else (just browse blogspot.com). Do we really have to bore our visitors and link to such a site which nobody needs? I find it okay if this community site has more to offer (like email accounts, etc.) and if it is on a different domain such that the community site can act as a magnet for new users and flood everyone with Haiku ads (over-exaggerated...). Wonderful! But it should (must) not be part of the official website because that will definitely make us look unprofessional and unfocused (Haiku or blogs?)!
Back to Francois' blog example. I find it totally okay if someone puts a little personal note at the bottom of his (on-topic!) article. If he had written about software patents/copyright and open-source and only at the end mentioned:
I plan to write some more RFCs, soon, so stay tuned! On a personal note: oh, no, SG1 will be canceled!!!
that would have been completely okay. This shows that we're humans and nobody would be annoyed if the actual article were placed at the top.
What about this: On the "The people behind Haiku" page we can link to the developers' personal blogs. Additionally, every user also gets a new "homepage" field in his profile, so others can find more/personal information (or a blog) about *every* registered user on our website. Isn't that good enough?
Yes, it's sad that we have to differentiate between "Haiku" and "personal", but I don't see how we can do this in a professional way.
You might wonder: What is this "Personal" category on our website about? It exists to mark Haiku-related content which contains many off-topic and personal opinions. For example, if Michael Phipps writes about why Haiku is still relevant this does not necessarily reflect the whole team's opinions and this should be made obvious because otherwise the whole project could suffer because someone expresses his personal opinion *about Haiku* (still on-topic!). Should I rename "Personal" to "Opinions" to make it more obvious? I find "Personal" more flexible, so IMHO it should stay like that.
Bye, Waldemar Kornewald
