Re: [Evolution] downloads page

[Tom Davies <tomdavies04 yahoo co uk>]

Hi :) 
WooHoo, thanks :)))

Yes, idealistic but i've seen it happen a few times. 

Quality often seems to come with quantity.  I've often found that some of the most amazing people don't realise they are worth much and even seem to be trouble until they find their niche.  In anarchist/co-operative groups it's often been the most disruptive people that got turned around by the nature of the group/organisation and become a driving force, even Chairperson or Company Secretary. 

However to find those "gems" the group accepts tons of people and although most of those turn out to help in minor ways with easy things it's difficult to always see exactly what they are doing.  Mostly helping noobs means the noob is able to help even newer noobs next time and gains greater understanding in the process, becoming less of a noob and thus able to help more and for most it's a slow and gradual process.  At each point hopefully some of the existing people get "freed-up" or develop skills or someone new arrives with skills already or lurkers find they are able to join in. 

So the initial problem to go from a small elite force, such as Evo currently is (apart from a few lurkers and people such as me) is to manage to attract a fair amount of new people.  Hopefully some of those can help with infra-structure to help cope with more people so that the project can up-scale further. 

I think some of the 1st things that Evo needs to help make itself grow is
1.  Easier to download and install. 
People here obviously find it easy to compile but most people out there haven't got a clue and find it too scary as a prospect.  Much easier to download and install a competitor such as Thunderbird or Claws and miss out on all the amazing things Evo can do that those others can't. 
2.  Some sort of forum
This can be outsourced.  Many people who insist on top-posting might well be even happier with a forum.  However it might be a hassle to set-up so i reckon this is the task to aim for in round 2 with some of the new people getting involved in setting it up.  There are existing resources such as
www.linuxquestions.org
or launchpad but it's better to have an address such as
www.evolution-forums.org
(which is currently available apparently).  I suspect that would cost a bit to set-up and i don't know where the initial funding would come from. 
3.  A donations button
but nice and discrete so that it's clear people are free to download and use without donating.  Preferably on the Downloads page or/and the Home page and on the forums or do the same as Wikipedia and have 1 month every year where donations are asked for.  It's not as easy as it sounds because it needs a bank account and some accountancy/bookkeeping to produce reports.  My guess is that Gnome could help with that to start with.  If their bookkeeper spent a couple of hours per month on Evo i doubt they would even notice.  Hopefully enough money would eventually start to be generated to pay the bookkeeper and repay Gnome. 

When you fixed the problem i was having and got Evo working on one machine i was almost ready to donate even though i am a little scottish and very careful about avoiding spending.  If Evo had a "donate" button in easy reach i might have clicked it for some small amount, maybe $5 or $10.  If i can get it working across all the desktops i might tell my boss we need to pay a tad more!  (although we would need a receipt or paper-work of some kind so that might not be so easy unless Evo had a bookkeeper) 


So, there are ways to start unblocking people's uptake of Evo and that might lead to more people joining in and that might well lead to finding some gems amongst the people joining. 
Regards from
Tom :) 

---

From: Andre Klapper <ak-47 gmx net>
To: evolution-list <evolution-list gnome org>
Sent: Monday, 26 August 2013, 13:25
Subject: Re: [Evolution] downloads page

Hi Tom,

On Mon, 2013-08-26 at 11:57 +0100, Tom Davies wrote:
> I do remember it well.  I was wondering if you did.

Likely. But why did you ask if you knew the answer already?

> The line that stuck with me was "The team's manpower is still severely
> limited " and i foolishly thought that was something you were keen to
> change.

Sure, more *good* developers are good. It did not sound like you talked
about developers though, but more about users.

> The question would then be "how do we increase the teams 'man'power".
> However it is becoming clearer and clearer that the opposite is true.

Increasing (wo)manpower for the sake of increasing (wo)manpower won't
solve problems. Bringing good people into the project, helping them
grow, and making it attractive to stick around sounds like a better way
to achieve increasing (wo)manpower as a side effect.

> This project seems keen to exclude outsider and make sure that new
> people are discouraged from taking part. 

If input comes across as "I know better than you what your needs are and
how you can achieve them" though input was meant to be helpful, such an
impression can unfortunately be created. I guess you are simply (still)
more idealistic than e.g. me, which can create misunderstandings.

How would you like to actively take part, and how can we help you?

andre
--
Andre Klapper  |  ak-47 gmx net
http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/

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