[ This got a bit longer and more philosophical than it started out to be. I hope I don't annoy folks too much with it. ]
I wonder if the web forums should merely be shut down. They're really of no timely benefit to anyone. Consider: On 21 April, Eeli wrote: | Why we don't attract developers and community? ... Closed source | products have active forums, BibleCS (sub)forum gets 4 message | threads per year, of which one was "Is Sword for Windows Dead?". | What's the problem? I think it would be better to shut them down, rather than to give the false impression of a useful resource which is seen empirically to be less than useless -- for the (especially new) user to come to the forums, post a question or two, and then wait for weeks, minimally, for any kind of answer, and often never to get one at all, is a sure way to generate frustration and then disinterest. Perhaps that level of disinterest is one reason why, when I have approached various electronic publishers about generating Sword format materials, I am told, "We have no plans for..." As a matter of course, such activity as can be found in the Sword Project is in mailing lists, not web forums. Even so, I try to stop in on the GnomeSword forum there now and again; probably as often as not, I end up answering peoples' questions with an addendum of telling them to join the mailing lists. Some do, some don't. About 5 weeks ago, in the middle of a very bad attitude, I wrote a longish screed intended for this list about the lack of progress even in bug-reported module problems for which fixes had been offered over many months without any updates being seen. In an unusual fit of good taste and self-restraint, I didn't send that, instead just tucking it away for future cogitation. Then, about 2 weeks ago, we abruptly had a sudden burst of activity in beta modules, fixes, and general updates. I'd like to think that this new activity shows we've not lost our collective way, but I do wonder if there isn't a need for some serious re-thinking of how the forums, mailing lists, and general supporting infrastructure of Sword is constructed and maintained, with an eye to the possibility of finding some needed, and I suspect fairly drastic, update and improvement to the process by which progress is made, and not just on UI development. (Because, by and large, we are a bunch of programmers who think code is king -- and we're wrong when we think that. Sure, Joe Random likes UI features, but what Joe Random *needs* is a wider set of resources with which to work: *Modules* are king. UI features are helpful to Joe's workflow structure at best, and just intrusive sugar at worst. If there's a class of UI features about which we need to give considerably more thought, it's with regard to authoring tools -- better ways for users to write new material or convert existing material, something far beyond the editable "Personal" commentary. When I have poked at the GS lists about GS' future, probably the most common observations are about [a] the lack of new modules and [b] the need for ways to write and share new stuff.) "Troy A. Griffitts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Having said all of this, I would love for us to include Dead Sea > Scrolls material! Do they have images of the Scrolls, English > translations, or merely Hebrew transcriptions? I don't know for sure, but apparently nos. 2 & 3 of that list. I suggest you ask Mr. Kirby directly, who wrote: >> I would like the advice of the SWORD project community on how best to >> make the Dead Sea Scrolls available on this platform for free. >> The advice I seek includes but is not limited to licensing suggestions >> and technological hurdles. >> The aim is to make the original language as well as translations of >> the Dead Sea Scrolls freely available. >> I have also contacted the makers of other popular Bible software >> packages for their feedback. (http://www.crosswire.org/forums/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=347) --karl _______________________________________________ sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel@crosswire.org http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
