On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 4:12 AM, horrido <horrido.hobb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Okay, so far, I've made two mistakes. First was my lack of sensitivity to > cultural differences around the world. Now that I know better, I shall do > better. > > Second was my failure to distinguish between different subgroups within the > Pharo forum. The reason I chose Pharo forum to discuss my campaign was the > fact that it is the most active Smalltalk forum there is. People who are > interested in Smalltalk join the most active forum generally, and this > includes not only Pharoers, but people from ESUG, Squeak, Cincom, Amber, > Redline, etc. > > So, for example, when I appealed for contributors to the Redline project, I > should've distinguished the target audience as those groups other than > Pharoers. This was my failure and I own up to it. > But targeting a non-Pharoer audience by posting on a Pharo mail list is not a good plan for success. Look at it this way... If mind share leads to success, then definitely Pharo is trying to build mind share. But people have busy lives with room for only a few interests, so someone you draw to Redline may end up one less contributor to Pharo. That may help Redline and Smalltalk, but Pharo loses. > > It is unfortunate that I must use the Pharo forum for this purpose. The > Smalltalk community is so terribly fragmented that there is no universal > Smalltalk forum to address, at least, none that is actually *inhabited*. > Without the ability to address the largest number of Smalltalkers, the SRP > cannot make any progress. I'm sorry, but I have to be blunt. > That is an unfortunate position to be in - but it is not Pharo's problem. That is, it is not Pharo's burden to solve all the ills of the (Smalltalk) world. Indeed, consider that Pharo specifically aspires to be more-than-Smalltalk. Maybe "that" is part of the spark that draws people to overcome preconceptions about Smalltalk (although there are mixed opinions on that, that don't need rehashing right now) Now some of us do have a passing interest in news of other Smalltalks (well usually just Amber in the past) - as long as its short and not too distracting. Again, people are busy and off-topic (i.e. non-Pharo) posts add noise that burns time - and so volume is discouraged. I think it is fair to announce articles that equally discuss Pharo and other Smalltalk dialects in the greater context of Smalltalk, but not directly soliciting people for other projects, no matter your good intentions. > > If anyone can offer a practical alternative, I'd like to hear it. > Otherwise, > the SRP has only two choices: > > 1) Continue what it is doing on the Pharo forum, and be mindful of which > group(s) I am addressing. > I appreciate your ambitions for Smalltalk in general, but I think you risk further conflict using the Pharo forum as a platform to promote Smalltalk in general. It is technically off-topic. Personally I don't want someone "leveraging" our community. I want them "participating" in our community. > > 2) Fold up the campaign and leave the destiny of Smalltalk to the Fates. > Without the ability to reach out to Smalltalkers everywhere, I am > hopelessly > disadvantaged. > Its a tough choice, but there are a few others you might also consider. 3) Connect with each fragment of Smalltalk in their own forums. Obviously more work. 4) Align more closely with Pharo or one of the other Smalltalks. Consider that Smalltalk may be a general concept, and in that moment after you gain someone's attention, it may be better to have one concrete path to follow rather than burning their interest trying to choose a path to take. 5) Stick with it but go slower. I'll start another thread regarding this on the popularity of programming languages. I'll leave you to your considerations. cheers -ben > > Regards, > Richard > >
