There are a few general points that I thought were worth highlighting: There is a gulf between the way that developers and non-developers see the world. This is reflected in their interests, their speech, and their approach to issues. While Ubuntu has many ingenious technologies to improve developer/user interaction, technological solutions can only ever have a limited impact on this interpersonal problem.
While the number of useless posts isn't so bad, we could definitely stand to increase the number of useful posts to the list. This list is an important place for interaction between developers and non-developers, which isn't currently being used to its full extent. Few people are currently planning to leave. Either everyone that's going to leave has already left, people leave shortly after making their mind up to leave, or people that complain about noise don't respond to surveys. ubuntu-devel-discuss is peanut butter, ubuntu-devel is Marmite: everyone vaguely likes u-d-d, but either you love u-d or you hate it. I personally see that as healthy, but it's important to be aware that u-d isn't "open to the public" in any more than a technical sense. Perceptions of "signal" and "noise" are more about style than substance. People don't really mind what topics you choose to discuss on here, so long as you're clearly trying to improve the lives of your fellow Ubuntu users. I get the general impression that u-d-d provides a lowish quantity of information to developers - high enough for them to subscribe, but low enough that they can drift away when targeted by inappropriate behaviour. I'd also like to suggest two ways of making the list better: First, we should write up the section 2 comments as guidance, and post it somewhere useful. Perhaps in the charter, on a web page somewhere, or in an e-mail sent to new subscribers. Because the guidance shows that attitude is the key, this should encourage new people to contribute even if they're not steeped in Unix knowledge, and should encourage constructive behaviour in those who don't take naturally to the collaborative approach. Second, we should write up a page in FAQ format, with headings like "I am having trouble setting up my computer/have found a bug in a program/would like to help improve Ubuntu/etc." and contents like "post your message on such-and-such list/forum/IRC channel". The guidance currently available (e.g. at http://www.ubuntu.com/support/CommunitySupport) focuses too much on listing all the things *we* do, and not enough on answering the questions *they* have. A page of concrete examples will do a better job of avoiding misdirected messages. - Andrew -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
