Martin Zobel-Helas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > How about joining the team? debian-volatile would surely do better, if > more persons would be involved in the team process. Why does it allways > need Andi or me to answer a mail on the mailing lists?
Possibly because http://volatile.debian.net/ doesn't suggest help is wanted or needed and doesn't make it easy to join in. A key need for online writing is to make it really clear if you want something, because people skim-read a lot. As someone coming to volatile cold, my first questions are: 1. what is it? 2. how do I use it? 3. how is it run? The first question can be dealt with by a summary and the announcement. There is a summary on the page, but it's not very direct. It took me two reads to feel I understood. I suggest editing it to: The volatile archive is a place for fast-changing packages like spam filtering and virus scanning, and even updated virus patterns, which can't really last for the full life of a stable release. The main aim is to allow sysadmins to update their systems in a nice, consistent way without getting the drawbacks of using unstable, even for a few selected packages. I vaguely remember an announcement of volatile: that would be an obvious next thing to link from there. I searched and found two at http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/01/msg00012.html http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/05/msg00016.html but there's no link from volatile's own page (or list archive to the first one?) as far as I can see. Interestingly, neither announcement looks like the project start and neither invites help beyond comments. Is there another earlier one? I also found talk slides at http://people.debian.org/~debacle/linuxtag2005debianday/martin_zobelhelas-the_volatile_archive.pdf that and any related paper would be helpful links too. The second question (how do I use it) is answered in the mirror list for users - that link could be clearer. The answer for mirror owners is done well. I'm not sure how to use it as a developer, though. Where's that answered? Link it in, please. How much use is it getting? How are most users learning how to use it? Are some questions asked frequently? Some of the mechanics of how it is run (my third question) are on that page, but the people aren't named, nor is what help is wanted - that's where we came in... Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ irc.oftc.net/slef Jabber/SIP ask -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
