[gentoo-dev] Re: news item: changes to stages (make.conf and make.profile)

[Duncan]

Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto posted on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:54:25 +0000 as
excerpted:

> Starting with catalyst 2.0.10, make.conf and make.profile will be moved
> from /etc to /etc/portage.

As with other app-focused news items, if it were a catalyst-user-focused 
change, you'd set the filter accordingly.  The fact that you're 
deliberately not doing so should correspondingly mean deliberately not 
mentioning catalyst either, as many in the target audience will have no 
clue what catalyst actually is. (For that matter, don't mention releng 
either.  Just stages, users know what STAGES are! =:^)


Users want to know what's changing (the location of make.conf, but ONLY 
in new stage tarballs), where it's changing to (/etc/portage/), when it's 
changing (don't say with whatever catalyst version, users don't care, say 
when, with stage snapshots built after July 30), and how it affects 
existing installations (existing users can continue using the old 
location for the foreseeable future, but can move it to the new location 
if necessary; if both locations exist, say which overrides).

Meanwhile, a general suggestion I've made for other news items as well.  
It doesn't yet really apply here, but could once the elsewhere suggested 
details of which one overrides if both are present, possible coverage of 
make.profile, etc, are covered:

News items are ideally short and to the point.  Think of the teaser 
paragraph under a newspaper headline or on many rss/atom feeds, directing 
you to the main article for more.  If they'd end up more than a paragragh 
including details, shorten it to a single descriptive paragraph and add a 
link to an article with the details.  That way you can keep the news item 
short and to the point, while properly covering the details without 
having to worry about space constraints, elsewhere.

(FWIW, between the thread title saying make.conf but the proposed news 
item focusing on catalyst, and the already fixed postfix flub, I was 
REALLY confused with the first version, and only with this version 
understand it even well enough to make this observation in the first 
place.  And unlike many gentoo users, I actually know what catalyst is!  
Unlike me, they won't have the postfix mistake thrown at them, but also 
unlike me, likely won't have a clue what catalyst is, so I'd guess the 
confusion level with the current wording would remain similar... so 
totally confused they have no idea what the news item is actually trying 
to say!)

-- 
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