A change of heart

[Ben Cooksley]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 11:30 AM,  <david.wright12886 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi David, I've looked at the software you linked to, and am a bit
>> underwhelmed.
>>
>> However, your concern seems like a good one, and I've heard various
>> efforts towards the same goal. Rather than looking at a 'website in a
>> box' I think we should back up, and look at the goal, think about how
>> best to meet it, and then craft the KDE.org website and the rest of
>> our public-facing tech to support that.
>>
>> Our Forums are working really well, as are the wikis. IRC and mail
>> lists seem to be ticking along well too. There has been some
>> discussion about tuning the Help > About KDE message on every KDE
>> application. We're the largest or one of the largest participants in
>> both GSoC and GCi. We do some active outreach in quite a few tech
>> conferences and other meetings. We've got great blogs and other
>> writing, including at least two books.
>>
>> However, I think we all know that we need to do more to get KDE
>> software users more involved in the community, and yes, supporting us
>> with their money too.
>>
>> So the question is, how can we build on the great infrastructure we
>> already have? Surely the main KDE.org can use some freshening, and
>> honing. How about getting involved in doing that work? The www team
>> has lost some momentum lately, and could use your energy and
>> enthusiasm.
>>
>> I think we are poised for a lot of growth in the next year, as our new
>> frameworks and beautiful new Plasma work become more widely adopted.
>> It would be great if our user infra was ready for the new visitors.
>>
>> Valorie
>> _______________________________________________
>> kde-www mailing list
>> kde-www at kde.org
>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-www
>
> Hi Valorie,

Hi David,

>
> Yes, the commons is not a magic bullet, but it does tick all the right boxes
> compared to similar systems. It is still relatively young technology at the
> moment though, so I wouldn't write it off completely. It might be wise to set
> off in a direction that could be changed to such a setup in a couple of years
> time once it has matured.
>
> I hope you can appreciate however what it aims to achieve, and that is to
> unify the online image of the organisation. That's what KDE desperately needs
> at the moment, unification and simplification. It is a bit of a hopping game at
> the moment to find information you need.

This is primarily because www.kde.org itself is out of date, and
information has become spread across various wikis and sub-domains.

>
> Things like 'groups' are very useful though as they can become the central
> location for help and information on topics. You could have for example a
> 'Plasmoid Development' group, for those interested in such things. At the
> moment you're on your own really to find this information out, you'll probably
> start at the wiki, then maybe hit the forums, or irc once you can't find the
> information you need, or maybe you'll just give up (and I'm sure some do). A
> central group would hopefully solve some of these issues. You can also have
> group events, which opens the door to self organised workshops or meetups, or
> maybe just a weekend wiki 'spring clean' event. Or course it would take
> someone with a bit of passion and motivation to step up and organise things
> like that, but this at least provides to platform for it to be possible.
>
> Certainly the multi-site (or multi-blog) element of the commons setup is
> something that KDE should really do (it uses wpmu which is how wordpress.com
> works basically). It goes a long way address the unification issues that there
> are at the moment. Ideally I'd like to have a separate site for each of the
> main applications and projects, with all the vital statistics and appropriate
> links listed. It also means that if someone with a real interest in that
> particular software wants to change or add things to the content, they can be
> given access to just that particular site, rather than being allowed to run
> riot on the whole lot.

WPMU is slightly flawed however as it basically expects to control
either a single domain and use paths beneath that, or have control
over a whole section of a domain (at least according to their
documentation). Control over the whole domain is something which is
incompatible with the way kde.org is managed.

>
> I would also like to setup a job board. Even if it's just listed with
> 'experienced C++ devs needed' at the start. I feel some people may be more
> comfortable with a more formal approach to the process, and to be contact and
> talked to about what they'd like to contribute to and how to go about it. It
> could be worded along the lines of, 'if you want to get stuck in visit here,
> or if you'd like a speak to a friendly advisor apply here."? I wonder whether
> this kind of system would be more female friendly as well?
>
> I have lots of ideas really. But for them to be possible it would require that
> initial shift in direction. The current infrastructure is one of necessity;
> things have been added as and when they have been needed, it's fairly clear to
> see. So perhaps the first thing to do is to take stock of the current situation
> and see where we can consolidate and change, and what will need to stay the
> same (such as the forum and wikis).
>
> Is there a list anywhere of all the active *.kde.org subdomains? Or is someone
> able to send me a copy? I can go through it then and produce a proper action
> plan.

Please see git://anongit.kde.org/sysadmin/dns.git. You can also access
this through projects.kde.org or quickgit.kde.org.
We have a huge number of subdomains, and far too many outdated subdomains.

>
> Kind regards,
>
> David.

Thanks,
Ben

>
>
>
>
>
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