I think it would be great to "lower the barriers to contribution".
My concept of the site has been as a "home page" with links to
some semi-permanent content such as lists of links and how-tos.
My concept of the audience has been people who really don't know
much about Linux, or who are fairly knowledgeable but just seeing
it as one of many things they need to keep track of or learn
about.
Now, there are lots of really busy Linux-oriented sites out
there, and we could become one of them. That would be a matter
of someone's ambition to create a really notable site.
I've been more oriented to serving the local constituency,
those people who want to meet us and to find some help.
I am a strong believer in using existing software where it
exists, especially when you have the option of customizing
or even hacking it. I have been developing software for
long enough to know that today's simple requirements will
morph into a monster before you know it, and a lot of what
you end up with will have a spooky resemblance to stuff that
already existed. Just look at Microsoft Windows for an
example of this tendency gone horribly wrong.
So I'd say if there's a package out there that does AT LEAST
what you want to do, by all means use it and abuse it as
much as needed to get it where you want it to be.
David wrote: > If we can't make something like this work then what are
> we advocating to people, to use mailing lists and IRC?
> Sorry for the length, maybe next month I can put it on
> the website :)
Exactly. Why not set up the plug.unitywave.com site
as a testbed for something we can throw away if a better
idea comes along. By next month you could indeed be
seeing some dynamic content, and you might find out
that you have something good for prime time within
a few weeks of work.
But I'd like to argue for the "front page" remaining a
nice, simple and inviting greeting, with links to whatever
exciting treats may lie beneath. Blogs and archives
are disorganized and incoherent by nature, and that's
part of their charm. I would like us to retain a
nice, simple and friendly front end.
(text/plain)