Re: Is volatile dead?
Martin Zobel-Helas <zobel@debian.org>
> How about joining the team? debian-volatile would surely do better, if
> more persons would be involved in the team process. Why does it allways
> need Andi or me to answer a mail on the mailing lists?
Possibly because http://volatile.debian.net/ doesn't suggest help
is wanted or needed and doesn't make it easy to join in.
A key need for online writing is to make it really clear
if you want something, because people skim-read a lot.
As someone coming to volatile cold, my first questions are:
1. what is it?
2. how do I use it?
3. how is it run?
The first question can be dealt with by a summary and
the announcement. There is a summary on the page, but it's
not very direct. It took me two reads to feel I understood.
I suggest editing it to:
The volatile archive is a place for fast-changing packages
like spam filtering and virus scanning, and even updated
virus patterns, which can't really last for the full life
of a stable release. The main aim is to allow sysadmins
to update their systems in a nice, consistent way without
getting the drawbacks of using unstable, even for
a few selected packages.
I vaguely remember an announcement of volatile: that would be an
obvious next thing to link from there. I searched and found two at
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/01/msg00012.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/05/msg00016.html
but there's no link from volatile's own page (or list archive to
the first one?) as far as I can see. Interestingly, neither
announcement looks like the project start and neither invites
help beyond comments. Is there another earlier one?
I also found talk slides at
http://people.debian.org/~debacle/linuxtag2005debianday/martin_zobelhelas-the_volatile_archive.pdf
that and any related paper would be helpful links too.
The second question (how do I use it) is answered in the mirror list
for users - that link could be clearer. The answer for mirror owners
is done well. I'm not sure how to use it as a developer, though.
Where's that answered? Link it in, please.
How much use is it getting? How are most users learning
how to use it? Are some questions asked frequently?
Some of the mechanics of how it is run (my third question) are
on that page, but the people aren't named, nor is what help is
wanted - that's where we came in...
Hope that helps,
--
MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ irc.oftc.net/slef Jabber/SIP ask
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