Re: [hylafax-users] new community site

[Bill Binko <bill-sender-4b2fd6@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Darren Nickerson wrote:

> 
> > 1) Commercial content on the hylafax.org site
> >
> > While the "hardware" box on the main page is marginally OK, the
> > information on the "Support" page is clearly inappropriate for a ".org"
> > site.  It speaks in the first person ("we can help you there too!") as if
> > ifax.com IS the hylafax community and that there are no other choices for
> > support.
> 
> We're more than happy to change that. Can you propose a way for us to put
> something there that would include our offerings among those of others? I
> think it's useful to have a list of consultants for people to reach out to,
> and I think some of the language there will help educate people to the
> availability of support options ... we started the TechSupport page on the
> wiki for that reason as a stop-gap measure until the new site was live. I
> like Lee's approach on his support page, but I'd rather people not have to
> use the mailing lists to solicit proposals, I'd prefer them to have the
> information for a direct approach.

I think it would be fairly simple to add a "Commercial Support" page that 
listed any qualified companies that provided HylaFAX support.  Certainly 
anyone with commit access to CVS could be listed there as a contractor or 
vendor.  More generally, anyone who agrees to remain subscribed to 
hylafax-devel should be invited to provide a blurb and contact 
information.  They should also be able to submit either an image ad or a 
smaller text blurb to be rotated on the front page (where the "hardware" 
ad is).  

If you wish to have those with commit access vote on each proposed support
vendor, that could work.  Perhaps more appropriate would be an assumption 
of quality, and a vote to remove companies that didn't play by the rules 
or provided shoddy service.

> > 2) Slow releases
> >
> > My client has unforunately abandoned the HylaFAX releases, and we now
> > build RPMs from CVS HEAD whenever there's an update we need.  This has
> > even required emails to the list and directly to Lee asking, "Is CVS HEAD
> > currently stable enough to deploy?"  It's simply not reasonable to have 8+
> > months between releases and consider this an active project.
> 
> To be fair, not all releases have been that slow. But by all means, let's
> have a productive discussion on how to accelerate releases on -devel. As you
> know, anyone can call for a release at any time, so how about you just come
> and tell us to cut one! ;-) Thus far, the discussions have supported the
> beta, beta, beta, release candicate, release type of process, and perhaps
> the gap between them can be shortened to days/hours instead of weeks.
> Whatever we do, let's make sure not to compromise quality much (if at all).

I understand that there's been discussion about going to an even/odd
release approach on -devel (I had dropped off -devel a few months ago),
and that you were of the opinion that it was not a workable model.  That 
may be, but I think it's fair to say that there needs to be some mechanism 
for providing releases to users more quickly.

I hate to say that I like Lee's approach (I don't like the separate site
at all), but perhaps something similar to Alan Cox's pre-releases during
the Linux 2.4 cycle wouldn't be a bad thing.  It would give those needing 
fixes a known quantity (better than CVS) and would provide feedback before 
official releases were made.

> > Let's face it: Sourceforge raised the bar for open-source community sites
> > and tools.  It is completely possible for an open-source project to get
> > better hosting, bug tracking, releases, testing environments, etc. at
> > sf.net than can be built and supported by your average "commercial
> > sponsor."  Moving to sf.net is an excellent idea that should be discussed.
> 
> I'd prefer to have this discussion after we've had a chance to showcase what
> we've already been concepting out and developing. I'll see what I can do to
> accelerate the go-live date for you.

I look forward to it.  And if I see other ways iFax can support the 
community, I'll let you know.

Bill

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