On Tue, 2010-06-22 at 19:23 +0200, Oddball wrote:
Bryen M. Yunashko schreef:
On Mon, 2010-06-21 at 18:03 +0200, DenverD wrote:
Pascal Bleser wrote:
One thing I would definitely _not_ agree with, though, is to lower the bar. That would be unfair, and it's pointless to target a large number of members just for the sake of it if that membership doesn't reflect anything.
thanks for your enlightening answer
if i wrote "lower the bar" it was a mistake, i agree that numbers for the sake of numbers is not what we need (ask the forum guys how much i kick when they wanna count 40K+ members, when everyone knows a big percentage of those posters come once, get an answer and are never heard from again, ever)..
i say "lower the bar" but instead was asking if "the bar" is in an established (ie written) guideline..
dd
I can see where they come up with a number like "40K+ members" and people do interpret the term "member" quite differently. In my opinion, in its most generic form, everyone is a member of the community of openSUSE that ranges from actual contributions down to even just users.
There has long been a loose debate about the term "Member" for our membership roster. And we've never really come up with a truly better and definitive term. Membership means different things to different projects. If you're a member of openSUSE or a member of GNOME Foundation, it means you've demonstrated real contributions to the project. If you're a member of Linux Foundation, it means you paid $99 for membership dues.
And it has always pained me to have to reject those who apply for membership and say "I am applying because I want to contribute" because they haven't figured out yet that you don't have to be an openSUSE member in order to be a community member and thus contribute. (See how I used member in two different contexts within our Project?)
So for us, we have two real challenges: 1) Keep the term "Member" or come up with something better? We're always open to suggestions. and 2) Turn up the volume on Henne's beloved "Just do it!" mantra and get people to really get it into their heads that if you want to contribute, just do it. You do not need our approval of membership to be a contributor. And if you find an obstacle that prevents you from contributing let us know. But membership in and of itself is in no way an obstacle to contribution.
Bryen M Yunashko openSUSE Board Member
Maybe something else could come to existence: People contribute all they can, in their way, and they get noticed, like somebody approached me by mail, and asked me if i wanted to have a boxed edition of 11.1, and what my size was... i had to fill in the needed data.. after some time a box came... i had ordered nothing.. and than i saw it! Beautifull, a nice T-Shirt and a surprise, a Led-flashlight was added with the boxed edition, this was so nice, and felt realy good! To be appreciated!
People could be asked to become a member, which is quite an honour than... It feels good to belong, to do something that has any use.. That is a whole lot different from applying with a chance to be rejected, because that realy sucks..
--
Enjoy your time around,
Oddball, aka M9.
Yes, agreed. And we do. At least I know several of us who do. I have monitored the IRC channels and whenever I see someone doing some good continued support work, I ask them to consider signing up for membership. Admittedly, we do not do this as a formal action and we should be even *MORE* proactive in doing that. Recruitment of membership is just as important as simply having something there for people to apply on their own. Bryen -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org