Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: Gentoo Support Everywhere

[Jesús Guerrero]

On Wed, May 20, 2009 22:58, AllenJB wrote:
> Jesús Guerrero wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>>
>> This is a request for comments on a new project,
>> namely "Gentoo Support Everywhere".
>>
>> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gse/
>>
>>
>> The web page doesn't really explain all the background
>> needed to understand why would anyone want to start such a project.
>> However this forum thread might be more
>> clarifying:
>>
>>
>> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-762914.html
>>
>>
>> The initial aim is to provide some support to these lost souls
>> that wander around the LQ forums, and to create a Gentoo subforum at LQ
>> like many other distros do. However, eventually the support might be
>> extended to other places if there's a need and enough human power to do
>> so.
>>
>> Comments welcome, and thanks for reading.
>>
>>
>
> After reading everything so far, basically as far as I can see this
> project exists solely to provide a capacity for an "official" presence on
> LinuxQuestions (and perhaps other sites later). Of the current
> membership it appears to be taking up no time.
>
> However, is an entire standalone project for this necessary? Could this
> not just be coordinated as a task of userrel (or perhaps forum moderators,
> as suggested earlier)? What purpose does having a standalone project have
> over doing this within an existing project?

I did this just because it was suggested in the forum thread,
and it seemed like the way to go. Other ideas might be better
for this so I am ready to hear them of course.

> Specifically in relation to the LQ sub-forum, will the members of the
> project be moderating that sub-forum? Or is their task purely to help there
> and moderation is left to the LQ moderators?

We will not be part of the LQ team and we will not be moderating
anything there. Easy put, all they want is us to say "hey, we
are here and we like that there's a gentoo forum at LQ", some
kind of official pronunciation, and a project seemed official
enough for me (in fact, more than they ask for).

> How will you ensure that an official presence is maintained in the long
> run? While it's all well and good to say that the current members are
> spending their time there anyway, but what happens in 3+ years time when
> they move on. As I see it Gentoo is left with a (semi-)official sub-forum
> that it created but no longer supports - How will this reflect on Gentoo
> as a whole?

That's another task for a project, isn't it?, to guarantee its own
continuity when members leave. If not, the project dies and the LQ
support would die as well. That can happen in any project, but if
there's  a project it's less likely that the idea will die starved
forgotten in some dead thread into a forum or something like that.
It's my view anyway.

> Will you be intending to recruit some sort of "official helpers" (who
> are probably already active on these forums)? Would they become members of
> the project (and thus Gentoo Staffers/Developers)? What privileges would
> these project members have within the Gentoo Development sphere?

LQ do not require any big support on our side. Whoever want to help
is welcome to help, but really the amount of gentoo traffic there
is not that big, and we can just redirect them to our forum when
needed. There's no need for a big staff or something like that, as
I already said, even one person would be ok and that's all they ask
for.

It's not like having a second forum there, just some basic attention
for those that dive lost in the net for some reason.

-- 
Jesús Guerrero