Confess I am less worried by the n900 noise (which seems to be abating slightly) than I am by the amount of in-community bickering in the last week or two. The extent to which we are a divided community bothers me immensely.

The n900 will be just fine. It will find its place in the market and things will settle down. It's done well enough to ensure no-one in Nokia will sack the entire maemo team and ditch the whole project, and in twelve months time will we go through this all over again for the n1000 (maemo 6). What concens me is what state the actual community will be in at that point, given how divided we are now.

Though I'm sure someone will come in and say that maemo.org has always been divided and it's survived this long.

Well...

I've been looking for the opportunity to inject this personal observation and Kathy just opened the door.

There's been division and controversy here as long as I've been a member, but it really ramped up with the N900 release. There really is a different default flavor at least to Talk now (other side of the .org fence seems largely unaffected, no surprise).

I do see that membership here is fairly polarized now, with a huge influx of new members with no obvious bent toward community or contribution, but rather a "help me NOW" mentality. We joke about punctuation and grammar in another thread but I admit that as an old fogey and writer especially I am very put off by the "omgwtfbbq1111!!!11" posting style that seems to be increasing. It works for gaming forums-- but NOT IMO this community.

As elitist as it may sound, I would prefer we revert back to a more developer/tester/enthusiast/etc norm and cut the "Help me NOW!!!" contingent loose to find other homes, like Howard's Forum.

I'll endure hatemail for that sentiment I'm sure but I think we need a narrower focus and highly-specific purpose. I don't see help desk to the world as that purpose. There's better places for it.

Now, please note that I don't exclude "noobs" at all. Someone like RevdKathy who plopped in as a so-called "bear with little brain" but look at her now: blogging on Maemo, ramping up in phenomenal short order, driving projects, and helping people in a noob-to-noob bootstrapping operation.

THAT is the sort of new user I'd prefer to cultivate.

Now, I don't know how to accomplish a "user jettison", especially diplomatically... I'm just expressing my preference. Splintering a community doesn't have to be a bad thing-- it's a normal evolutionary process. The bad part is how humans handle it when it becomes a serious issue requiring resolution...

EDIT: actually I just had a brainfart...

what if we ran TWO forums here under the maemo.org umbrella-- one with strict community focus, and one for peer-to-peer support? I think that would be a HUGE help.

I could have swore they tried this before.




Yeah.. here it is... I don't mean to drag up a seriously old topic.

So I am legitimately uninformed: Did Tablet Scene ever work?

just add a help and ask the maemo mob sub forum then people who want to help people can and people who get annoyed seeing them posts can stay clear. problem solved
there is no need to split the community like you mention and I'm surprised you even mentioned it with you being on the council and being the driving force of certain projects to help drive the integration of new people.

WoW! I had forgotten about that. Time to dust that one off I think.

I think maybe it would help you to re-read my points.

i read you points and solution is not hoping people go away and join howard forums to get help.
the community needs new members of all kinds and without the recent influx on talk.maemo.org then the whole of maemo.org would not be getting the increased funding and support for all the different sections.
In the short term it may get boring reading same complaints and help me naow posts but the long term benefits I'm sure will make it all worth it

hear hear well said!

What is interesting to note is that not too long ago we posted our concerns about what we thought at the time was a little boy trapped in a gas filled balloon, yet this week I did not see any posts about the Haitian earthquake.

You may have read but continue to misunderstand. My points have nothing to do with something as petty as boredom... that's more a "point" one of my teenage sons would make. My opinion is wrapped around a true sense of community.

EDIT: and as I've said before-- I ran for council to represent a community... not people flitting in here with zero desire to become part of a community. IMO we have way too many of those lately. And if you are disheartened by my performance and choices and feel I don't represent your interests, by all means don't vote for me if I run again. I won't be hurt.