A prescription for release anxiety
On Fri, May 17, 2002 at 10:54:24AM -0400, Walter Tautz wrote:
> Indeed, for people who already know where to look. Why not put a small blurb
> in the main webpage www.debian.org/releases/woody/. Basically one paragraph
> as described in the debianplanet.org description.
The trouble is, making well-worded official Debian news releases intended
for consumption by the public doesn't happen for free. And furthermore, if
such releases were made, they would invite the public to hang on whatever
details seem significant to them and draw wrong conclusions from them. Lord
knows, this happens enough already without us encouraging it. So why
exacerbate an already bad situation by giving higher profile to our fuzzy
guesses which are intended to communicate to other *developers* how we're
doing, anyway, not as gospel truth?
Let me make this principle concrete. If we had issued an official public
news release saying "Thus saith Anthony Towns, we shall release May 1st if
all goes well, which includes accomplishing foo, bar and quux." What would
that really buy us when all the public hears is: "Thus saith Anthony Towns,
we shall release May 1st. Mumble, mumble frotz"?
By now it is pretty clear to everyone that each time we make a release, it
is a painful process. Broadcasting that pain doesn't do us any good, and it
doesn't do the public any good. By analogy, do you *really* want to see a
graphic live video feed of Aunt Jane's labour and delivery, or would you
rather just wait for the birth announcement? The only truly significant
piece of information worth reporting will be when Debian finally releases.
As for your proposed summary of debianplanet, we have no say over how we are
represented on debianplanet.org or other news sources, so I don't think
either copying their material verbatim or linking to it is appropriate. Let
them say what they say (which will almost certainly be tainted by whatever
editorial spin they put on it) and leave it at that. People can (and do!)
watch the soap opera there unfold, kibbitz, and so forth, while the
developers go about their business making the release ready the best way
they know how, unhampered (I hope) by the inevitable stream of armchair
criticism that accompanies every release. These are the anxious friends and
family waiting in the lobby. While I understand and sympathize with their
anxiety, I am thankful that they remain in the lobby until we can all
finally celebrate the much-anticipated joyous event.
> Clearly anyone ALREADY
> familiar with debian will be well-aware of the release status however
> the average user or newcomer will not grasp the signficance of
> the phrases 'Release-critical bugs' etc or will S/he be likely to
> click on debian-devel-announce mailing list.
Why on earth not? What could be clearer than:
"In addition, general status reports are posted by the
release manager to the debian-devel-announce mailing list."
That *invites* people to click on the list, and once there, it isn't
terribly difficult to grok "Release Status Update" posts, even if you aren't
an incredibly technically gifted person. Point - click - read. Anthony has
a good "bedside manner". He writes in a very pleasant, precise style that,
while aimed at developers, should at least convey to the layperson the sense
that "what do you know, they are actually working on it and are following
an actual plan".
Ben
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Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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