[Fedora-marketing-list] Community - Was - Ubuntu Release Party...

[Sam Folk-Williams]

Karlie - I think you have some excellent points. Comments in-line...

On Sat, 2006-11-11 at 09:27 +0000, Karlie Robinson wrote:
> Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> > Michel Salim wrote:
> >> This probably should be better documented. I don'[t think many users
> >> realize that they could just boot the first CD, choose their
> >> installation options and then download only the other CDs that they
> >> need.
> > 
> > 
> > It's already well documented like say the installation guide. End users 
> > dont read much.
> > 
> > Rahul
> > 
> 
> Every time I see a mention of RTFM I just cringe.
> 
> Michael brings up a good point about booting the first disc.  Even as an 
> ambassador he finds the info hard to come by so why would you expect the 
> average user to home in on it?
> 

I don't think Rahul was trying to say RTFM, but I can see how the
comment came across that way. There is no arguing this fact - most
people don't know about this and many other great features. It's not
their fault. And we can't just say, "It's in the doc if they would only
read it". Rahul also points out that he routinely answers questions on
the forums and mailing lists and points to the docs, which is exactly
what we should/can be doing. But there should be a way to make some
things more obvious to the user. A "Tip of the day" is a nice idea and
it has been discussed many times in the past. Personally, I'd like to
see this integrated into the Gnome environment rather than just on the
wiki.

> You guys are always focused on Ubuntu because, I can only assume, you've 
> got user envy.
> 

I don't know if I would call it user envy. I think Ubuntu is a great
example of an outstanding Linux community. Many of us Fedora users have
interacted with Ubuntu people. I think references to the Ubuntu
community are only natural given that it's an important part of the
linux world at large. In the fedora project we tried hard to never say
bad things about any other distro or their community. I hope we can all
maintain that civility. By the way, there are *a lot* of Fedora users
out there too :)

> But with "end users don't read much" it's no wonder there aren't as many 
> Fedora users.
> 
I don't think Rahul meant this to be directed at a user nor was it in
response to a user query. Other comments above.

> And if you want to take an example from a distro that's gowing at a pace 
> that will pass Fedora on by, you should be looking at the reason why 
> PClinuxOS is now in the top 10 at DistroWatch.com.  (a few months ago it 
> was 10, now it's 6.  What does that tell you?)
> 

Again - it's not a competition. I take your point, though.

> Is because of their community.
> 
> New users are greeted with open arms.  Questions that have been answered 
> hundreds of times continue to be answered as if it was the first time.
> 
> If you need an example, check out 
> http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=10099.0
> 
> New user question.  The specific answer.  Followed by where to find more 
> information.  Then success for the user.
> 

I do think we can make it easier for new users to get involved with
Fedora. I have read the ubuntu lists - more so at the beginning of
Ubuntu. And I was very impressed with the openness and welcoming
attitudes of those who replied. I definitely think we can learn
something from these examples. No one thing is going to "fix" this. But
I do think that a lot of people have the impression that it's easier to
get involved with other linux communities than it is to get involved
with our community. That said, I think we have an excellent community
once you get to know it. 

> My best advice for Michael and Rahul... Tip of the week!  Not only would 
> you be helping novice users, but you'd get people into the documentation 
> to do a little more learning on their own.
> 

I love this idea - more comments in a separate email.

> I'm sure a tip of the week would be a welcome addition to Fedora Weekly 
> News.
> 
-- 
Sam Folk-Williams, RHCE
Global Support Services

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