I believe that this change has been made in this way to lets focus on the activities and not on the role I think (but not sure) that the purpose of these changes (names and approval) is to provide an idea of the kind; "No matter the title, if there is commitment, everyone can collaborate on openSUSE." Even in Italian the word "advocate" is very similar to that used for the attorney ("avvocato"), but I think it's a very, very minor problem. Honestly, I never believed so much in the importance of the name ("A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" W. Shakespeare), but the important thing is that people feel part of a community united and active. The sense of community is crucial. I can understand that when things work well, the changes may seem inappropriate or even harmful, but these can be of the basic steps for further improvement, and to enlarge our beautiful community. Obviously, it's just my opinion Alexjan -- Alexjan Carraturo -- Twitter/Facebook/Identica/flickr: axjslack Personal site: http://axjslack.wordpress.com -- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+owner@opensuse.org

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 3:11 AM, Koushik Kumar Nundy wrote:

On 21 May 2013 15:54, Kostas Koudaras wrote:

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If you are seriously thinking of a rename: What about openSUSE Jedi?

The problem with a pop-culture reference, is that it creates an inside joke, which kind of makes new entrants feel excluded.

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Ok I am a Star Wars Fan but afterall, we are geeks...

That might not be a very reasonable assumption in the long run.

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2013/5/21 Per Jessen :

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Greg Freemyer wrote:

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On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Carlos Ribeiro wrote:

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"Why do I need to talk with openSUSE Advocate, I did nothing wrong, against the law I don't need a Advocate"

That may be a valid concern. I work with lawyers all the time, so I'm used to the word "advocate" being used routinely.

The use of "Advocate" might be controversial, as Carlos states, due to the associated legal implication. While Richard, as a native English speaker, has a very good point, as in we are intending to tell people that we advocate the use of openSUSE (distro ++) , and participation in openSUSE (project).

The discomfort with evangelist is very understandable, because of the bad taste it leaves in the mouth for people who have encountered users of this label first-hand.

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I have no issue with "Advocate" (although it also means "lawyer" in my native language). To me, "Advocate" and "Ambassador" both have some connotations of being officially assigned. My favourite is "Geeko" as also proposed by Carlos.

"Geeko", with it's association to openSUSE & Gecko, sonds like a reasonable choice. However, it says nothing about what the role entails. This might or might not be an issue. I personally wouldn't mind being associated with that label, but at the end of the day, it kind of means nothing.

Advocate and Ambassador kind of mean the same thing in English for this use case, but Ambassador sounds kind of more approachable imho. While I understand most of the changes in the program, such as a new distribution system for DVDs/goodies, I fail to see why a name change would be necessary, especially when the new name has an identical meaning for all practical purposes.

Also, I am curious why removing the vetting system was proposed/implemented. It was a very basic screening, and as there are actual costs involved in sending stuff to "Advocates", money that is obviously finite, this would mean we potentially have a system that cannot support itself. I understand that not all the Advocates will be sent event/DVD kits indiscriminately, but do we actually need unvetted labels for every person who tells others, "Use openSUSE"? The promoDVD request page doesn't have a requirement that anyone have an "official tag/post" anyway. IIRC, this wild west approach was tried in the early days of the Ambassador program, which resulted in an insanely long list of names on the wiki, with people that were never seen, or heard from. Isn't it exactly what we are trying to do all over again?

TL;DR : Why change the name at all? Why remove vetting of list? If name is to be changed, "Geeko" sounds awesome, albeit irrelevant, and would get my vote.

~ kknundy

P.S. Re-added marketing list. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org

I believe the use of the word "advocate" is appropriate for the new idea of making oneself a promoter of openSUSE through the ambassador program. I believe the "legal" implication is mostly a personal link to the English language. In essence, the problem is not with the word but with a personal understanding of the word. When I first heard the word "advocate" the first thought that came to me was "good!because ambassador does not really fit the role of promoting openSUSE." If you think about it the word "advocate" is a more philosophically linked word to the idea of defense or apologetics. Most of the times, in English, when referring to a professional who does advocacy is "lawyer." Lawyer is the most common word used to describe those who practice legal advocacy. -- Andy (anditosan) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+owner@opensuse.org