Re: [libreoffice-website] Re: [libreoffice-design] Extensions List suggestion

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 8:30 PM, Charles-H. Schulz <
charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org> wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Can you tell me where does this come from? Where this decision
> > > > has been discussed and taken and by whom? The fact that we don't
> > > > use the OOo site is to satisfy a request that has nothing to do
> > > > with quality.
> > > >
> > > > We are an open source project, why should we prevent somebody to
> > > > contribute for whatever reason? what are the criteria for the
> > > > quality you're talking about, where are they written, who is the
> > > > person giving the approval? That would be funny that people could
> > > > contribute to OOo but not to LibO...
> > >
> > > It is a work in progress. We will be consulting with all of the
> > > stakeholders once things settle down and LibO3.3 has been released.
> > > Rest assured we will be able to change things once a community
> > > consensus has been reached.
> > >
> > > We did not want to move focus away from the important areas of
> > > community development at the moment. Hence the comment previously.
> > >
> > > Stay tuned
>
>
> I must say that I'm left perplexed by all this. Michael, would you mind
> telling us:
> - who is "We" as "we did not want to move focus away"
> - why this secrecy? Do you remember it's an open source project?
> - "we will be consulting with all of the stakeholders... " so let me
>  rephrase: you're doing something apparently in secret then will
>  battle hard to defend it in front of the community? That's about the
>  most unproductive thing I can think of here, and it reminds me of the
>  Drupal misunderstanding. Nobody has ever talked about an extension
>  store/website, although it's definitely something we need to address.
>  But working this way around just does not help.
I don't want to seem rude, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount
of 'push back' within the website mailing list, while groups and individuals
are working hard to build a better future for our community.
Regardless of the development style, or whether it is received well from the
community during consultation and even if ideas are not implemented, could I
suggest everybody attempts to take an encouraging attitude towards new ideas
and people willing to put hard work in to any idea or project. It is the
responsibility of the people doing the work to consult and present their
idea and development to the community at which point feedback and
(hopefully) constructive criticism will always occur. (This is not a direct
reference to Charles, but a feeling that I have from participating in and
watching the mailing lists).

There is no secrecy involved with this or any other ideas/developments I am
involved in. It was an idea floated inside the website mailing list, wiki
pages and instant chat discussions between the website team (Not IRC
unfortunately).
The idea was roughed out and as we have made clear through the website
mailing list a number of times it is very easy to create a rapid prototype
to 'show' the idea rather than tell it.

A number of people in the website team don't like the mailing list
communication style, so we have been successfully coordinating many tasks
through the wiki using a similar style to the marketing team.
I can point you towards multiple references on the mailing list
conversations discouraging consultation about these 'future projects' at the
moment, so instead of halting progress on the idea a group has been talking
about possibilities and integrating it into a first draft prototype so we
have something to discuss when the time comes rather than starting from
scratch. This is also the route that the Silverstripe site has taken through
the initial development which is due on the 10th January, after which
modifications, alterations or redesigns can occur. This is also the way that
the SC asked for the community bylaws to be developed, which IMHO has worked
quite well.

Let me reiterate that this idea is simply that, and idea, at the moment. A
small amount of work has gone into putting a very rough prototype together,
but as with the 'Drupal idea' no decisions have or will be made without
wider consultation.

If anybody wishes to participate in this very early idea development and
prototyping I am more than happy to include them in any and all
conversations relating to this or any other ideas. All of these ideas as
well as developments and participation is being recorded on the website wiki
pages. So I fully refute any accusations of 'secret development', and I
dislike the insinuations that this makes on me and others working together
for the good of our community.

Michael Wheatland

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