[gentoo-dev] Re: News item: m68k, s390, and sh are dropping stable keywords

[Duncan]

Aaron W. Swenson posted on Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:36:50 +0000 as excerpted:

> On 2013-09-19 21:29, Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
>>
>> For general review and improvement, to be committed 2013-09-25... [The
>> summary link [3] will work soon... :) ]
>>
>> ##################
>>
>> Title: m68k, s390, and sh are dropping stable keywords
>
> To stay within 42 characters, perhaps rewrite the title as:
>    Drop Stable Keyword for m68k, s390, and sh
>
> Or:
>     m68k, s390, and sh Move to Unstable

Or even just drop "and" and replacing "are" with a colon (assuming a 
colon is allowed):

m68k, s390, sh: Dropping stable keywords

>> Following discussion [1] and a vote by the Gentoo Council [2,3], m68k,
>> s390, and sh will drop all stable keywords and become unstable/testing
>> only arches. The main reason for this is that these arch teams visibly
>> lack manpower, leading to overall delays.
>> Stable may well be synonymous with outdated here.
>
> I would remove the last sentence. It read a bit as editorializing.
> However, I'd change "leading to overall delays" to "which resulted in
> undesirable delays".

Or "resulting in undesirable delays."

But remembering this is targeted at users, I'd keep but change the last 
sentence as well, as "outdated" or more specifically "insecure" is likely 
to be the big user-viewpoint concern that this should address.

"The concern is that stable thus risked being synonymous with dated and 
possibly insecure, such that dropping it seemed the best and most 
practical way forward."

But dropping the sentence entirely works too; I just think users might be 
left wondering why they can't simply keep existing stable only and not 
update, and this sentence makes explicit the ultimate risk in that.  But 
perhaps that explicitness isn't necessary.

>> No steps are required from users, however you should be aware of the
>> upcoming changes.
>
> I'd "bottom line" this as:
>     No action is required to prepare for this change.
>
> Of course, just my 2¢.

"This notice is for information only.  No user action required."

... And that could either remain at the bottom, or be moved to be the 
first paragraph.

Talking about which... perhaps making it a general practice to make the 
first sentence/paragraph either "notice only", or "user action required", 
would be a good idea?  Maybe even promote it to a general header
("Action status: Notice only", "Action status: Action required" ?), so 
readers/tools that wish to can sort by it?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman