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Stuart Herbert posted <1130785533.10547.41.camel@××××××××××××××.org>, |
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excerpted below, on Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:05:33 +0000: |
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> The original problem is that GWN, forums, planet.g.o, gentoo-dev - even |
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> together, we've seen that they just don't reach enough of our user base. |
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> Aren't we just going to reach the same people by putting more news in |
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> the same old place? How is that going to reach the people we're not |
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> reaching today? |
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There is /one/ way to reach /everyone/ doing an upgrade (well, those that |
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do emerge -a or -p, anyway, and those that don't, well... they apparently |
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/like/ being left in the dark, and doing perhaps risky upgrades without |
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knowing what's going on, so let's not disturb their "enjoyment" <g>). |
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That ONE way: Push a "null" portage -rX upgrade to both stable and ~ |
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versions, the sole purpose of which is to print the *VITALLY* *IMPORTANT* |
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*ANNOUNCEMENT* as an einfo both after the "upgrade", and as part of the |
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"portage will stop merging at this point and recalculate" message one gets |
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with a -p or -a. (For double-sure effect, make the first emerge action |
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after the upgrade /only/ print the message, doing nothing else. Further |
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emerges would then go back to normal behavior.) |
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Because emerging portage always stops an ongoing emerge to recalculate |
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what's left after the new portage is merged, that should mean virtually |
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everyone should see it. For a one-shot, vitally important message, |
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that'll be seen by more than anything else. If it's not important enough |
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to do this, than it's probably not all that important, for those who |
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aren't making an effort to follow news anyway, after all. |
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That should address the "reaching people who aren't reading anyway" |
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problem. Once it is settled what the single point of news delivery will |
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be, if it's considered to be important enough to reach /everyone/, even |
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those who don't follow current news outlets to see it, this would be the |
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single most effective way to do it. |
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This is rather the "nuclear option", yes, but it should demonstrate the |
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point. There's a point beyond which it's simply not worth worrying about |
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whether a message gets out or not. A point at which one can say, "Open |
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your eyes and read, and you have nothing to bitch about if you simply |
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refuse to do so!" If the message is put out to all the usual outlets |
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(it's already out here, put it in GWN and on the front page of gentoo.org |
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and on the forums and on the announce list and posted to the user list), |
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that's gotta be considered "good enough", unless it is decided to "go |
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nuclear" using an approach similar to the above. Anybody not getting the |
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message after delivery to all /those/ places... should be considered not |
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WANTING to get the message, as they've demonstrated just that by their |
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actions, if not their words. |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in |
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http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html |
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-- |
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