Re: Informal survey (was Re: Banner ads)

[Stein Gjoen <srgjoen@online.no>]

Guylhem Aznar wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Oct 23, 1999 at 05:07:41PM -0400, Donnie Barnes wrote:
> > Sometimes there needs to be a trouble maker.  I agree completely with
> > Jim's sentiment as well as Kendall's.  This "core team" business is
> > silly.  Marketing the LDP is silly.
> 
> And ignoring the power of marketing is just as silly.

Sure, but then we have to use the channels we already have,
even now the news:comp.os.linux.answers remain empty yet
starting to use it should not cost money. I cannot recall
last time I saw a posting from LDP there.

> We must tell people where they can find good quality and free
> documentation.
> 
> That means concurrencing MacMillan or O'Reilly.

We should get back to waliking before starting to run, I see
little benefit in expending time and effort on new avenues
when old ones are being left behind for no good reason. From
what I have seen the core team has not communicated any plans
to disband news:comp.os.linux.answers or has it? Unless it is
kept in use people will forget it, unsubscribe from it etc.

> > Sure, if LDP members are already going to be at a trade show or
> > conference, then fine, let them get the free booth that's available
> > (and for projects like this they always exist) and annoy RH or VA
> 
> Sorry that's not the way I see it.
> 
> We're not going to hand out flyers, but rather talk with people
> wondering why there's a documentation project, why it's free, what we're
> doing, what license we use...

Again I see a lack of focus:to make people aware of the LDP
and start using it as a resource. I believe there are MANY
more ways to achieve this that are cheaper, faster and reach
more people.

> We need to explain what the LDP is about, not give away flyers ; it sure
> can help but a discussion in the real world is better.

And how many do you reach in a conference? Probably not many
unless you are invited as a speaker. Again I feel we should
wait with the conference profiling, especially since we have
to get to work on many other avenues where we are lacking.
Also I believe it is better to present something which is
working well at a conference. Negative impressions from Slashdot
articles are probably not forgotten.

> > or someone to print off some flyers to hand out.  But to turn this
> 
> We try to do whatever possible by ourselves, and use exterior help
> only as the last possibility.
> 
> > into something that needs to raise money to support traveling to
> > market is silly.  A good free software project will "sell" itself
> 
> That's why I never ever had the idea of using a single dollar of the LDP
> for this ; it must be kept for serious issue.
> 
> We can use publicity instead!

Yes! On-line websites and news, and on-disk with installations. The
latter has plenty of opportunities for improvement, ref my
suggestions in an previous posting.

> But we'll never add any other banner to the site.
> 
> > You folks are going off the deep end (and I'm addressing the "core
> > team" here) with issues that just don't matter.  The most important
> > thing that this project needs is *maintainership*, not leadership.
> > Fix the *technical* issues that still exist (submissions, tracking,
> > etc) and forget about all this other crap.
> 
> - Submission : fixed
> Did you try ldp-submit ?
> The ftp will also help that

Is the FTP up yet? I submitted my data to get access but
never heard anything back.

> - Tracking ?????????????
> 
> We've never discussed this. Maybe you mean indexing ?
> 
> What else do you suggest ?

It is not that long ago since last I posted my list of suggestions
for improved visibility and usability so I won't repeat those. Rather
I'd like to add new ones. A quick check on my Redhat 6.0 machine
using
	man -k help
	man -k ldp
	man -k document
	man -k linux
	man -k resource
	man -k info

came up with no pointers to LDP or the documents, even though
they are all installed here. A few stub manpages would work
wonders for those who know the man command but not LDP.

Also many installations come up with a ready made list of
bookmarks etc. Freshmeat is listed, LDP is not. This too
should be a simple and efficent way of promoting LDP.

And when things are running it might be time to run a new
feature at Slashdot and promote a more professional image
of a smoother running LDP.


Regards,
   Stein Gjoen


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