Bernhard Dippold wrote:
Hi Terry, Paul, *
- caution: long posting! -
as you probably know, the project is huge. Many volunteers devote some
time to it - more or less, as much they are willing / able to
contribute. To keep this large project workable there are different
mailing lists for several purposes, and not everybody is aware of
which list to address in order to find the right person to reply.
I'm subscribed to nearly 40 mailing lists - and I'm sorry to neglect
[EMAIL PROTECTED] as I don't have the time to read and reply to this mass of
mails.
Hi. I appreciate the trouble you have taken. Making your way to a
point where you know what to do and how to go about it is like wading
through a swamp. I congratulate everyone who has succeeded.
I read two main concerns out of your mails:
1) Proposals have not been supported in a way you hoped for.
2) The web pages are not intuitive to navigate if you want to
contribute and help more than you do by now. <major snip>
I haven't been keeping notes so I am unwilling to analyse the
experience. More than one attempt over about 17 months is involved and
I've also been reading reports by others. I could embark on the
exercise again and keep track of the experience but to what end? You
can't do anything about it.
I am content to rely on my own conclusions, impressions and instincts.
Others can find out for themselves.
I doubt that I am alone in extending low priority to anything which
occupies my time unproductively. The organisation seems to be contrived
to have that effect.
As far as individual issues go, I'm not going to die in a ditch for any
of them. I have enough experience to know you win some and you lose
some. But, over time, based on your experience and the reports of
others, you become aware of certain attitudes and biases, some of which
are typical of large organisations. It doesn't, or shouldn't, hurt
those who are active in the organisation to be made aware of such things.
I admire an organisation that listens and responds intelligently. Such
organisations are few and far between. OpenOffice is not one of them.
So my conclusion: Try to get into contact to a developer able to do
what you want to be done and convince him! This needs time - but just
to propose something and wait for it's implementation is not the way
OpenOffice.org does work.
It's supposed to work that way. File an issue and don't distract people
from their work. That should be the way. I respect the right, indeed
the need, of developers / programmers / all workers to get on with the job.
This leads to point 2):
It is not intuitive how to contribute to the project.
When I was in business, we did not rely on our staff's intuition when it
came to getting work done. They were told in simple terms what to do.
It isn't rocket science.
<snip>
We need our web pages to be improved - so don't hesitate to help us.
There are those two little words again. And so begins a journey.
Through a bureaucratic and internet maze, probably to a mailing list and
that's where it ends. Perhaps I could initiate an exchange of emails on
the subject. What then? Someone starts another thread. Someone else
starts another thread. Someone else ....
Further comments inline...
Terry schrieb:
I've had a taste of one of the distribution problems. Several people
have had problems getting isos. The bittorrent link for the "extras"
iso does not work, and with good reason: there appears to be no iso.
This would be a topic for the [email protected]
mailing list. Please have a look at the archive to find out if there
has already been given a reason why this issue is still alive.
<snip>
Like I've got time to do that for every problem that crops up when my
effort isn't going to have any effect. What do you imagine that I could
achieve? So, there's an explanation for something not working; I know
that already. Can I fix it? No.
I seems to me that the organisation is floundering in a quagmire of its
own making. Do I think I can fix that? No. Do I want to join the
floundering? No.
As I said, I've been looking for a way to help. That's made more
difficult than it needs to be.
Please show where these problems should be fixed.
What!? If I make the effort to analyse and set that out, you're going
to fix it? Read my comment, please, about the urge some of us have to
spend our time productively. Let's face it: this exchange is an
academic exercise.
Instinctively, I recoil from any closer contact. I've acquired
"observer" status for issues, which is a glorified way of changing
nothing.
You mean observer status in the qa project? (I wasn't able to find an
issue project)
You must have asked for this status - why did you?
The qa project's website tells about asking for canconfirm privileges
if you want to work on issues - observer status shows that you are
part of that project and get the project's announcements on your
personal starting page after logging in.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next and I've been required
to join a mailing list for some reason which was not explained and
isn't apparent.
Which list? Why isn't it apparent? Please tell me (offlist, if you want).
Time is precious. One day, when I have nothing else to do, I'll go
back to the website and see if I can make sense of my "new" status.
Or ask someone to help you finding your way through it.
Actually, now that I've stopped to think about, I believe all I have to
do is write comments to issues that are of interest. The requirement is
to install the latest version of the software, which I naturally do not
want to do. Thanks for that. The answer was lost in my memory.
The answer was not so apparent for the other project I sought to join
twice - the authors' project. Nor do I recollect what the next step was
for the online documentation. But I may get to that in due time. I'm
quite sure I can find my own way to some conclusion, even if the
conclusion is that I don't care any longer. It depends on finding a
renewed will and sufficient time in one block. And on having a
reasonable expectation of a positive result and an intelligent purpose
and there's the rub.
--
If you're seeking, check out http://www.rci.org.au
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