Re: Holes in KDE (fork of Changes in Git Infra thread)
Ian Wadham wrote: Hello Ian, for reference, I'm one of the KDE Community Forum adminstrators (aka the green guys). So what CAN I do? This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives rather than negatives. This comes from the upstream software we use - phpBB. I admit it's written in a not-so-friendly way, but there's little we can do at this point: mainly because we try (reasonably) to avoid modifying the upstream software too much, because that has a maintenance cost (and we already are short on skilled people and we already have some modifications to the forum software wrt upstream). I have one. Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in order to reply, for example, to a maintainer wanted post(?) Yes, the forum requires a valid KDE Identity login. more. Another possible turnoff. Speaking for myself, I almost invariably click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really, really interested. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as forums as large as KDE's attract a whole load of bots, spammers, and other ad-spewers. Even with registration enabled (and checks to external services to prevent obvious spammers) we have to kill several spam posts per day. Also IMO registration is to keep a minimal barrier of entry to prevent flames and other unwanted behavior (granted, the forums behave exceptionally well - few times we've had to poke people to behave). Hopefully this clears things up. -- Luca Beltrame - KDE Forums team KDE Science supporter GPG key ID: 6E1A4E79
Re: Holes in KDE (fork of Changes in Git Infra thread)
On 10/01/2015, at 8:49 PM, Luca Beltrame wrote: For reference, I'm one of the KDE Community Forum adminstrators (aka the green guys). In reply to what Ian Wadham wrote: So what CAN I do? This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives rather than negatives. This comes from the upstream software we use - phpBB. I admit it's written in a not-so-friendly way, but there's little we can do at this point: mainly because we try (reasonably) to avoid modifying the upstream software too much, because that has a maintenance cost (and we already are short on skilled people and we already have some modifications to the forum software wrt upstream). I have one. Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in order to reply, for example, to a maintainer wanted post(?) Yes, the forum requires a valid KDE Identity login. more. Another possible turnoff. Speaking for myself, I almost invariably click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really, really interested. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as forums as large as KDE's attract a whole load of bots, spammers, and other ad-spewers. Even with registration enabled (and checks to external services to prevent obvious spammers) we have to kill several spam posts per day. Also IMO registration is to keep a minimal barrier of entry to prevent flames and other unwanted behavior (granted, the forums behave exceptionally well - few times we've had to poke people to behave). Hopefully this clears things up. Yes, it does. I understand. I guess I could add a rider paragraph to anything I post, to reassure newbies to persevere with the way the site does things and to say that they will not sign their life away or receive endless emails and ads by getting a KDE Identity. KDE really does need new recruits --- badly. Cheers, Ian W.
Re: Holes in KDE (fork of Changes in Git Infra thread)
El Dissabte, 10 de gener de 2015, a les 23:10:47, Ian Wadham va escriure: On 10/01/2015, at 8:49 PM, Luca Beltrame wrote: For reference, I'm one of the KDE Community Forum adminstrators (aka the green guys). In reply to what Ian Wadham wrote: So what CAN I do? This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives rather than negatives. This comes from the upstream software we use - phpBB. I admit it's written in a not-so-friendly way, but there's little we can do at this point: mainly because we try (reasonably) to avoid modifying the upstream software too much, because that has a maintenance cost (and we already are short on skilled people and we already have some modifications to the forum software wrt upstream). I have one. Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in order to reply, for example, to a maintainer wanted post(?) Yes, the forum requires a valid KDE Identity login. more. Another possible turnoff. Speaking for myself, I almost invariably click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really, really interested. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as forums as large as KDE's attract a whole load of bots, spammers, and other ad-spewers. Even with registration enabled (and checks to external services to prevent obvious spammers) we have to kill several spam posts per day. Also IMO registration is to keep a minimal barrier of entry to prevent flames and other unwanted behavior (granted, the forums behave exceptionally well - few times we've had to poke people to behave). Hopefully this clears things up. Yes, it does. I understand. I guess I could add a rider paragraph to anything I post, to reassure newbies to persevere with the way the site does things and to say that they will not sign their life away or receive endless emails and ads by getting a KDE Identity. KDE really does need new recruits --- badly. Ian, I'd appreciate if you could write your emails not as if the world was going to end. Every of your emails seems as if things were very bad, they are not, they can be improved, yes, but reading your emails, if i were a newbie, i'd ran away from what you paint as a dying project. Cheers, Albert Cheers, Ian W.
Re: Holes in KDE (fork of Changes in Git Infra thread)
Hello Valorie, On 10/01/2015, at 1:56 PM, Valorie Zimmerman wrote: Comment often heard: we've lost $person / we're missing people to maintain/lead/do $project. This is understandable, and to be expected in a large, mature project such as KDE. However, in #kde and #kde-devel IRC channels we have new people almost daily trying to find some way to get involved with KDE. In an effort to bring the solution and the problem together, at Akademy we brainstormed and came up with the Mission forum [1]. What that forum needs is postings! When you as a devel are thinking about giving up maintainership, please write a Maintainer Wanted post. When fixing bugs, and seeing a valuable bit of code which needs porting, please write that up and put it on the forum. Of course we always need ideas for possible GSoC projects, and the forum is a good place to post and develop those ideas. Naturally they will eventually have to be moved to our GSoC docs, but they can be discussed and refined on the forum. Great idea! I think you should get it posted on kde-announce or somewhere where *everyone* in the KDE Community will see it, not just kde-core-devel. But ahem! Here is an immediate turnoff for newbies (or old Bs like me… :-)). https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291 says (in part): Forum rules • You cannot post new topics in this forum • You cannot reply to topics in this forum • You cannot edit your posts in this forum • You cannot delete your posts in this forum So what CAN I do? This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives rather than negatives. Being a rebellious old B, I clicked the New Topic button anyway… :-) Then I was greeted with an invitation to log in with my KDE Identity. Luckily, I have one. Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in order to reply, for example, to a maintainer wanted post(?) Do you want the KDE Identity service to accumulate newbies and casual enquirers? Also the registration requirement might make a newbie think he/she had to JOIN KDE (right now), when he/she is just following up an initial interest and wants to know more. Another possible turnoff. Speaking for myself, I almost invariably click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really, really interested. Needed documentation, internationalization, translation, artwork, promo, and web work are also suitable. If you have written a help wanted blog or ML post in the past, dig it out and post it on the forum. I know devels often don't like forums, but guess who does like them? Beginners and people who are using search engines. We need these people to join our community and start helping out. That will happen when we ask in a public place, which is the forum. Maybe I sounded negative above, but I really would like to *use* a forum like this. I have five well-documented KDE Games to hand over to new maintainers and I am getting older every day… :-( All the best, Ian W. 1. https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291
