Re: Op/Ed Articles on KDE

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 5:42 AM, Justin Kirby <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 7:28 AM, Stuart Jarvis <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Monday 25 October 2010 22:17:21 Thomas Thym wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I am a bit confused. On the one hand I see the advantage of such an
>> > aggregation site like Oriol proposed. On the other hand I see the
>> > disadvantage of having one more site. It was discussed last week at the
>> > openSUSE conference how the different openSUSE communication channels
>> > could be reduced. Perhaps it could be done within the Dot, but special
>> > marked as "personal opinion" like a column in serious newspapers.
>
> Thinking about it further I do start to find myself agreeing with this more
> for the sake of consolidating our efforts, so long as these articles were
> labeled clearly to avoid tampering with the Dot's position as our official
> news source.
>

I'm on a local FOSS mailing list. While the content is mostly news,
there are a few op/ed submissions. Those op/ed topics generate far
more activity--comments, new thoughts/thoughts building others, civil
disagreement.

Marking "personal opinion" would work. The comments are "personal
opinion anyway. Dot != Pravda


>>
>> If it comes eventually to a .kde.org site then I'd like to see it as part
>> of a
>> repositioned Dot (otherwise we have two official newsy sites and it gets a
>> bit
>> confusing).
>>
>> The benefits of starting it as an independent site are, imho:
>>
>> 1. Freedom - it can be a bit controversial and explore boundaries because
>> it's
>> not 'official'. For example, we could have an article setting out the
>> urgent
>> need for KDE developers to embrace Mono (if you can find someone to argue
>> that
>> - it's not my opinion...). On the Dot that would - currently - be read as
>> official news that KDE was going to rebuild it's software on Mono
>
> Well, that's mostly true.  Though if we had a very clearly marked category I
> think we could avoid this.  Think about regular newspapers...they tend to
> have a section like this and readers know that articles within it are only
> the opinion of the writer and not the entire paper/organization.  If we did
> move this to the Dot eventually I think that in addition to having a
> separate category for this we could also include some title in all such
> articles since some people probably don't even notice the categories and
> we'd want this to be really obvious.  E.g. they all say "Editorial:" before
> whatever the normal article title is or something.  Maybe even a Dot article
> explaining that we're adding opinion pieces prior to posting the first
> opinion article would be good. Or at the top/bottom paragraph there could be
> a short blurb saying "This article is an editorial, and is solely the
> expressed opinion of the author.  It does not represent any official stance
> of KDE or the Dot."
>
>>
>> 2. Speed - we don't have to reposition the Dot, get someone to produce an
>> 'opinion' template/style/category etc before we get started. Also the
>> articles
>> don't get delayed by the normal Dot delays
>
> True, though if we get Oriol and anyone else that would've ended up helping
> with this other site to pitch in as Dot editors perhaps those delays would
> generally be shorter since we'd have more Dot staff?  Plus articles like
> this generally wouldn't be very time sensitive since they're not your
> typical news.
>
>>
>> 3. Less expectation/pressure - it's 'just a blog' in a sense. If it has
>> lots
>> of content: cool. If it doesn't: nevermind.
>
> But this could also be a great way to generate some real conversations in
> the Dot comments.  We could use articles like this to build buzz around
> certain topics in an edgier fashion than we could otherwise.  Does that come
> with more pressure for the writer than on a normal blog?  Yeah maybe, since
> the reader base is larger...but I think people will still contribute
> articles anyways.  It might also put more pressure on the editors in terms
> of drawing the line between what they allow and disallow since these
> wouldn't be cut and dry statements of fact.
> In terms of lacking content, I think it's less of a problem if we integrate
> this into the Dot since we have a regular stream of normal articles.  If
> this is on a blog by itself and without much content it may never catch on.
>>
>> The downsides:
>>
>> 1. Less initial exposure (possibly also an upside - see 3. above)
>> 2. Slower to gain readers (however, we can promote it on Planet and link
>> to it
>> from the Dot). The site should itself be included on the Planet, I think.
>
> Yep, I think if Oriol organizes these within the Dot there is more bang for
> the buck in terms of exposure versus us just suggesting others go read it.
>  That would work for a little while but if people don't become really
> engaged after reading the article that we refer them to from the Dot they'll
> probably not go back.  If we put these directly into the Dot that will allow
> additional chances for these types of articles to find their niche.
>
>>
>> > Just my 2 cents.
>>
>> And mine - though having written more maybe that's 5 cents ;-)
>
> Aye, I think I ended up in the 4-7 cent range there :)
>
>>
>> Really, I think it is up to Oriol. If we went down the Dot route then it
>> would
>> also need to be approved by the editors (I'd be happy, seems like Troy
>> would
>> also support it, not sure about the others).
>
> Yeah, this is all just food for thought.  I'll support the activity either
> way.
> -Justin
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Stu
>>
>> PS: I seem to like making numbered lists in the last few days, probably
>> I'll
>> get over that ;-)
>>
>> > Cheers,
>> > Thomas
>> >
>> >
>> > Am Montag 25 Oktober 2010 16:00:51 schrieb Stuart Jarvis:
>> >
>> > On Monday 25 October 2010 16:00:51 wrote Stuart Jarvis:
>> > > On Saturday 23 October 2010 01:19:15 Troy Unrau wrote:
>> > > > On 22 October 2010 14:51, Albert Astals Cid <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > > > > I don't understand why we can not use the dot for those articles.
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Albert
>> > > >
>> > > > Because at some point, the dot ended up being the official
>> > > > mouthpiece
>> > > > for KDE PR. Something I'm particularly happy about, but such is
>> > > > life.
>> > >
>> > > While you were an editor? ;-) Or before that? I don't feel that it has
>> > > changed since I've been involved, but that is quite a short time.
>> > >
>> > > Either way, I think Troy is right about the way the Dot is perceived
>> > > now
>> > > - stuff that goes on there is seen as /the/ KDE position.
>> > >
>> > > If we want to change that, maybe we can. But someone* has to:
>> > >
>> > > 1. propose the change in practical terms and the arguments for it
>> > > 2. persuade enough people that disagree to make a consensus
>> > > 3. (most important) get people to write those kinds of articles
>> > >
>> > > *I'm ambivalent about this so that 'someone' is not me
>> > >
>> > > We can wait for 1 and 2 for ever or we can let Oriol get on with
>> > > making 3
>> > > happen independently and then - one day if it's agreed - bring it to
>> > > the
>> > > Dot.
>> > >
>> > > Cheers,
>> > > Stu
>> > >
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