[theforum] Vote Request

Tara Cleveland evolt at taracleveland.com
Fri Sep 8 11:18:28 CDT 2006


Hi All,

Whooo! The beast awakes!

Sorry, this is a bit long, since I got up this morning and found  
reams and reams (can you say that with a non-paper form of text?) of  
emails to read and respond to!

On 7-Sep-06, at 1:32 PM, Alan Lloyd [www-ss.com] wrote:
> I suggest disbanding them and moving all these groups functionality  
> back
> to theforum.

I don't really think it makes that much difference. As a few have  
said, the most important thing is getting *something* going in any of  
the lists, not just "faffing" about with which lists exist for what  
reasons.

On 7-Sep-06, at 3:33 PM, Alan Lloyd [www-ss.com] wrote:
> I personally don't feel IRC fosters community spirit.

Well that depends, I think it does for some people. The first place I  
really got "involved" in evolt was through the IRC channel. Actually  
chatting with real people in real time made all the difference to me  
in feeling like evolt was a people kinda place instead of just a  
mailing list, a web site, and a bunch of faceless committees. So, I  
think the IRC channel is a nice thing to have, but it shouldn't be,  
and it currently isn't, an official channel of communication. But  
please don't get rid of it! I don't know what I'd do without my daily  
dose of #evolt!

On 7-Sep-06, at 5:58 PM, William Anderson wrote:
> We don't need another redesign competition, we don't need another  
> redesign
> (not right now), nor do we need votes.  We need content, we need  
> people to
> provide that content, we need people to consume that content, we  
> need people
> to manage that content, and we possibly need people to think of new  
> things
> to do with evolt.org.

I sort of agree with this except I don't think we should put  
restrictions on what people can and can't do. Personally, I'd love to  
work on a redesign, but I'm not really into writing articles. So why  
shouldn't I be able to put my energy into that?

I think we should get together a team of 3 or 4 people to implement  
mine and Martin's designs - to tweak them as they see fit and massage  
and manage the redesign. Any more than that and it's too many cooks  
in the kitchen. Any less and it's too much of a burden on any one  
person. What do you guys think? Any volunteers (besides me of course  
- I'm volunteering, natch).

On 7-Sep-06, at 8:09 PM, Alan Lloyd [www-ss.com] wrote:
> Who is in charge? (steering)

IIRC theforum voted to eliminate steering awhile back - at the same  
time as we voted to eliminate the extra lists - which never really  
happened. I'm not sure I'd want another steering committee, but a  
steering committee has certainly got it's positive points...


On 7-Sep-06, at 8:29 PM, Martin Burns wrote:
> While Dean has certainly done very large amounts of work for evolt
> (particularly sysadminy), I wouldn't think it fair to say he's a lone
> martyr. Speaking as one who has also put in a fair amount of
> spadework, I hope I'm not sadly mistaken in hoping that anyone voting
> for changes is also accepting ownership for implementing them and
> making them work...

Yes Dean has done a tonne of work. And, speaking as someone that put  
in hours and hours and hours of work and saw very little come out of  
it, I can completely bloody understand giving up and withdrawing from  
evolt - since I've been feeling like doing the same thing myself  
(sorry... a little frustration peeking out there). But, there are  
lots of people that have put in lots of work, but no concerted effort  
to make changes and a lot of naysayers and dilly-dalliers that sit on  
their asses and don't actually *do* anything but feel like making  
comments actually accomplishes something (sorry... that frustration  
is hard to control sometimes)... *sigh*

On 7-Sep-06, at 8:42 PM, Martin Burns wrote:
> True, and I wouldn't expect something *different* to be done than,
> but in true OS tradition, if you're not prepared to do, you shouldn't
> get entirely upset if nothing is done. Or, to put it another way,
> requests for change/effort are so much more effective when
> accompanied by a "I'll do *this* bit" pledge as it then feels much
> more like we're working together.

Hear, hear! (wow. Martin and I actually agreeing on something - will  
wonders ever cease?).

On 8-Sep-06, at 12:02 AM, David Kaufman wrote:
> the only "organization" evolt
> has ever had is just whatever it needs for the list to continue to  
> send
> and receive email to all the people in the world who want to  
> communicate
> (or just listen) and associate (however loosely) with all the other  
> cool
> web workers of the world, for free.  And I feel that that's okay.

Dave, you rock. That was just such a perfect post. Thanks.

On 8-Sep-06, at 11:12 AM, Sarah Adams wrote:
> There are plenty of other resources that people need to
> know about if we don't want them to die.
...
> However, IMHO there is no harm in sending out a
> semi-regular (monthly maybe) update to thelist about what is going on
> with evolt: highlighting new content or features, as well as the
> existing stuff, encouraging listers to post articles, post to a blog,
> etc. Raising awareness within the community and encouraging people to
> explore all that evolt has to offer couldn't possibly be a bad thing,
> could it?

Hear, hear! One of the best ideas to come out of this discussion.  
Sarah, would you take on writing that email (for the first few months  
anyway?).

Thanks everyone for renewing my interest and allowing me to have hope  
in evolt.

Cheers,
Tara












More information about the theforum mailing list