Chris Nighswonger wrote: > On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:08 PM, Joe Atzberger <ohioc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Right now we can't even > > get comment on RFCs, let alone dedicated VMs and manpower. > > The scant participation in this thread by others is very much proof of > the problem pointed out here! I find it hard to believe how few have > chimed in for as much "noise" as there is about these issues.
!!! You hide this discussion in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard' in an unlit cellar with broken stairs (or at least a subject line which shows only "A Discussion on A Policy Setting..." in my mailbox overview, which isn't really the sort of fun and attractive thread I rush to open, especially when others have already replied) and then grumble about low participation? Please excuse me while I pick my jaw off the floor. ;-) As you know, I only saw this thread now after you asked me to look for it... and even then, only at the second search attempt! I think this shares something with the low-comment RFCs. We authors should acknowledge how we're contributing to failure too: vague titles, fragmented discussion and information overload, to name three. Overload is a hard one to deal with, especially as people love Koha which maybe makes us too verbose, and summarising discussion is something probably Nicole can explain far better than me (judging by the great kohacon10 blog posts), so I'll take the vague titles one. Here's my tip on subject lines: http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html#subject "Good email has a good subject line. The subject line is your way to promote your message as one I should read first. Make it a short (max 10 words?) summary of what the email is about. Sometimes I look at "(no subject)" but not often if I don't know the sender's name. Stuff that looks like spam or viruses also gets mostly left unopened. Stuff with words like "URGENT" on the subject line often gets left until last, just to spite them [...] I know your email is important, but if I can't tell that it's important from the subject, I may delete it by mistake. So, if you don't hear back after a while, try resending with "RESEND" in the subject." Looking at this subject line with those glasses on: "A Discussion on A Policy Setting Forth Standards of Code Submission, etc. [WAS: RFCs for 3.4 from BibLibre (serials & acquisitions)]" deters in four ways: "Discussion" is redundant (this is a mailing list), "Policy" and "Standards" are unfun words, "etc." suggests a lack of focus, and the "WAS:..." suggests there's context that I probably don't remember. I feel a better title might be "RFC Code Submission Standards" and to link to the previous thread in the first paragraph, explaining if/how it's relevant. Some other advice may be in guides on how to write newspaper headlines or press release titles. Other than that, I simply re-emphasise my previous points that some recommendations seem unrealistic and I feel others are within the RM's power to decide and should be left there. Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. Past Koha Release Manager (2.0), LMS programmer, statistician, webmaster. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha-community.org http://lists.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel website : http://www.koha-community.org/ git : http://git.koha-community.org/ bugs : http://bugs.koha-community.org/
