Re: [Gimp-web] Which social media sites shall we support?

[Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>]

29 нояб. 2015 г. 15:11 пользователь "Alex" написал:

> I am personnally on Diaspora (via Framasphere.org) and GNU Social (via
Quitter.se).
> I find it sad that we barely see libre/opensource software communicate
> on those platforms, which, contrarily to Facebook, Twitter, & Google+,
are truly
> opensource & libre projects.

I'll be blunt. It would be noble to maintain all-libre profile, but is it
realistic?

1. When you look at the amount of GIMP users at libre platforms and their
amount at non-libre platforms, priorities line up all on their own. Here's
why:

https://quitter.se/tag/gimp

7 posts in November (so far)
6 posts in October
2 posts in September
4 posts in August
1 post in July
4 posts in June
4 posts in May
8 posts in April
3 posts in March
7 posts in February
3 posts in Janurary

Since Quitter is part of a federated network (right?), 49 posts with #gimp
hashtag is is all people posted on GIMP in GNU Social since January 1, 2015.
On Twitter, I wouldn't even be able to know where to begin counting posts
that mention GIMP -- there are just so many of them. We have over 60K
subscribers on Google+, over 1.5K fiollowers on Twitter (we barely
started), and 12 likes of the Facebook page since Friday night when we
launched it and haven't even told anyone about it.

Even though our communication to users has improved over the past few
years, there's still a popular notion that GIMP team doesn't update users
frequently enough, which in some ways is actually true. So it makes sense
to focus on a few channels that cover the majority of the user base and be
active there rather than support every platform out there and inevitably
lose focus.

2. Communication by its definition is supposed to be a mutual activity. And
on social networks it's important to provide _prompt_ feedback. As far as I
can tell, GNU Social has no Android apps, and the only app that Diaspora
has is unmaintained (since 2012) and badly rated. Which means that e.g. in
case of GNU Social you cannot reply someone promptly unless it's your job
to sit in front of a browser window all day and stare at it. In comparison,
yesterday a user asked a question on Facebook, and Pat and me replied
instantly within a few seconds from each other.

3. In addition to being prompt, replies should be informative and correct.
Which means the person who communicates with users on Diaspora or GNU
Social should be close enough to the team to provide correct information.
Which pretty much means being on IRC frequently enough. Here's a recent
case where someone jumped on IRC, tried to figure out smth about our plans,
failed to actually understand what developers told him, went back to a
forum and provided an answer that completely misrepresented team's plans:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?385742-Photoshop-alternative-with-32bit-color-depth&p=2973864&viewfull=1#post2973864.


4. Whoever replies from GIMP's account should also have thick skin and be
polite at all times, even if a user is trying to be hostile on purpose.
Personally, I'm a rather harsh guy, but I can handle myself. Can you?

So the question of supporting more channels (libre or otherwise) than we
already cover really boils down to this: do we have anyone who...

a) is present on these channels at all times to post news and provide
feedback;

b) is present on #gimp at all times and has good enough English to
understand what he/she is being told by developers;

c) can handle himself/herself in a difficult situation involving trolls and
really unhappy users.
P.S. On a more personal note, Quitter.se says "We are a federation of
microbloggers who care about ethics and solidarity and want to quit the
centralised capitalist services." right on top of the front page, but
doesn't even give me a way to search for messages. I've grown up in USSR
and I'd like to move forward, thank you :)

Alex