Attention / Interest / Desire / Action, getfedora.org, or why marketing 'the Fedora project' is a bad idea.

[W. Guy Thomas]

On Sat, 2005-06-25 at 12:16 +1000, Mike MacCana wrote:

> On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 10:21 -0400, Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> > On 6/24/05, Mike MacCana <mikem at cyber.com.au> wrote:
> > > Er, why? Why does targeting (or 'pandering to') an audience mean you
> > > will likely mislead them more or less than if you scatter your message
> > > to the universe?
> > 
> > Because I don't think fedora or any other distribution is the obvious
> > choice for any particular group of people or individual person. 
> > Firefox, openoffice, codeweavers... these items exist in a near vacuum
> > of choice and by their very nature they have a clear directive to
> > market towards existing windows users. I'm not sure fedora has such a
> > clear directive nor is fedora positioned to be the "one true
> > alternative" in the space where its operating.
> 
> I don't think it's the 'one true alternative either'. I think it's one
> of about three.
> 
> End user focused Linux distros are far and few between.
> 
> > How exactly do you market
> > one breed of dog compared to another breed of dog successfully to the
> > casual dog buyer?
> 
> You find out that user's wants and desires, and find a breed of dog that
> matches.
> 
> Selling everyone German shepherds is a dumb idea. Selling them to people
> looking for police dogs makes a great deal more sense.
> 
> > I'd rather see
> > us help guide the linux courious into asking the right questions and
> > making the right choices for themselves.  If that means mepis or
> > ubuntu or mandrake or knoppix or even fedora... great!
> 
> Same here. But I want Fedora to be one of the things they try.
> 
> Currently fedora.redhat.com doesn't market Fedora in any way, shape of
> form. In fact, it probably does the opposite, by focusing more on what
> it isn't than what it is.
> 
> > > Do you think that technically minded user, who's nevertheless used to
> > > Windows, would be happier with a distro that can probe his monitor, or
> > > one that'll ask him for 'modelines', when he doesn't know what they are?
> > 
> > This is what I am very wary of. I do not believe its in the linux
> > community's best interest to draw direct comparisons between this
> > distro versus any other.   "You're cocker-spaniel is totally not as
> > good for a first time dog owner as my golden retriever." 
> 
> Why not? First time down owners require a dog that doesn't mess the
> house, or require too much maintenance, or whatever. Marketing a dog
> breed that reflects those needs is simple logic.
> 
> 
> > I want to make sure that we focus on having people ask
> > questions 
> 
> That sounds an awful lot like you want to identify a market Jeff ;^)
> 
> > and draw their own conclusions about what is valuable to
> > them.  
> 
> Sure - let them know there's other Linux distros. I actually think it'd
> be good to encourage our audience to try other distros that reflect
> their needs - say, Ubuntu and NLD for Linux newcomers - themselves. And
> let them make up their own mind.
> 
> But provide the info that makes sure they're aware that Fedora will meet
> their needs. That it works, has testing, an isn't a beta. That it's got
> a simple install process, a good set of modern graphical config tools,
> modern, carefully selected OSS apps, a common look and feel, etc. People
> who appreciate such things can then know Fedora provides them.
> 
> And hence, the user wins.
> 
> Mike
> 
> --
> Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
> Fedora-marketing-list at redhat.com
> http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list


I know i will be ostracized for this, but you guys are bantering in here
about crap and nothing is being done.
If you would like to participate in a mambo that I set up, then cool,
hit here: http://fedorasolved.com/fccp

but the rest of this 'mailing list jerk off crap' is a waste of time.

I want to help, and I want to hit it and do it.  By the time some
'committee' ok's anything it's already down the road and lost.
then 'net is *NOW*, and you are wasting time with semantics and pissing
contests.

take care...I am unsubscribing....still love you all, heheh. see ya
around, it's a small world.

=G
-- 
W. Guy Thomas <mrguytx at austin.rr.com>
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