maemo.org - Talk - View Single Post - Maemo Community Council elections: Nominations open!

lemmyslender	2010-03-21 , 22:28
Posts: 968 \| Thanked: 974 times \| Joined on Nov 2008 @ Ohio	#120

Originally Posted by Jaffa

Because they were vague[1].

As I recall, a lot of the complaints were about lack of communication in/to the forum. You don't necessarily agree with that though, hence "vague" complaints.

As to whether they were worthy, it's not for me to say. It's easy to lose sight of the valid kernel of criticism when it's surrounded by repeated vitriol, FUD and personal attacks....I'm not sure it's as simple as "lack of communication".

You've already made a judgement about the complaints about the lack of communication.

Despite repeated requests, no-one offered concrete suggestions on what could've been done bettter.

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

... I participate in other forums where the administrators can force you to view a particular thread before continuing into the forum. Could that be an option to highlight particular topics for the community? ...

I think that was a concrete example of how to improve communication, you posted in that thread, so I assume you read my post. I believe others also made suggestions on how to improve communication as well.

I think it's that a large part of the community felt that they, and everyone else, were part of the Maemo community (collaborating on Downloads, in Bugzilla, on IRC, on the mailing lists and - mostly - here); however there were also a few (and that doesn't minimise their importance) that felt that they were part of an ITT(-only) community which was separate.

I'll have to disagree here. When I first joined the community, I did a lot of reading, and asked some questions. However, being as it was ITT then, it wasn't clear to me that there was so many other places where different types of activities related to Maemo were occurring. I considered ITT (and still consider TMO) to be the place where most *new community members* will gather and discuss, colaborate, etc. In fact, relating to the election, after being active in the forums for several months, It took me a fairly long time to discern how I could become eligible to vote. I had to dig up several posts spanning multiple threads to finally determine the multi-step process that would allow me to earn karma and become eligible to vote. It seemed to me that the people who set up the process to elect a council hadn't exactly gone out of their way to draw attention to the complicated process involved (at least on the forum). IMHO, many community members who were primarily involved in the forum, were left out of the voting process, which fostered a feeling of separation, however unintentional. The fact that many discussions were held in IRC or on mailing lists and only later mentioned in the forums after initial decisions had been reached, again fostered the feeling of separation, again however unintentional. I think there are many more people than you believe are/were part of that "few", just not as vocal as some.

This continuing talk of "forum only members" or "representing the forums" just perpetuates this falsehood about separation. Still the people with the most karma are some of the most prevalent on Talk; and everyone is part of the wide, diverse and multi-faceted Maemo community[2]

IMHO, there is a large part of the community, primarily in the forum, that are end-users. These people don't participate in all the other places out there, hence "forum only". These people are no less part of the community, and as such need someone to represent their views, which aren't necessarily aligned with the views of the developer/advanced user. The Maemo community is diverse, which is why the council should also be diverse and represent multiple view points. Just because someone with a lot of karma is prevalent in the forum (who have also generally earned a lot of that karma elsewhere), doesn't mean they understand the views of the average end-user.

[1]
They started off as "we weren't told" - well, yes you were in Reggie's announcement and in several posts leading up to it.

Then "we don't like the new theme" - well, it was trailed here, on blogs and (of course) on maemo-community and Reggie responded to the feedback; resulting in an iterative process which produced an excellent end-product.

Then "we want the mobile theme back" - to which Reggie said wasn't feasible as he'd upgraded vBulletin and it wasn't a simple job, and that help was welcome

Then "we really want the mobile theme back, and others too!" - to which Reggie reiterated that anyone was welcome to submit a new theme. andrewfblack did.

As I recall there was a lot of p*ssing and moaning on both sides, it didn't happen exactly like you are purporting it to have happened

Which is also why trying to pin down the exact size of the community is somewhat wasted effort; it's not a club where people get membership badges and have to pay their subs every year: it's a fluid, organic mass which cannot be exactly defined[/SIZE]

Which is exactly why I wouldn't vote for somebody who presumes trying to get to know the community you are elected to serve is a "wasted effort". I applaude YoDude for trying to get a handle on his potential constituents, instead of assuming he knows what it is / or can't know what it is.

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