Re: I still can't help

[David Webster <cog@seul.org>]

On Mon, 29 Nov 1999, Stefan Rieken wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I feel that not everybody did entirely agree on my last mail.
> 
> Has anybody of you ever taken notice of "the cathedral and the bazaar",
> the now popular article about the power open source?

I started reading it, but got side tracked. I've been meaning to go back
and read it for a while now, so if I'm looking for some bed time reading
tonight...
 
> You say you get a lot of people who are willing to contribute, but don't
> do a thing in practice. The reason is in my eyes is that they cannot
> try. They all have limited spare time and are not sure if they can spend
> it on you.

I have limited spare time, I help when I can. I'm sure that neither Jean
nor Donovan have unlimited spare time. We choose to spend some of our time
helping with Indy. If people don't have the time to give to Indy
constantly, then I'm sure they're welcome when they have the time.
 
> Imagine the following example: you make the complete sources of the
> website available, with instructions on how it should be edited and
> what's important. I then can grap this source, improve it, and if AND
> ONLY IF I think that I have made real improvements, I offer you my
> changed version. Any free software developer starts just by TRYING if he
> can improve something, without having to make promises, right?

Complete sources of the website are avaliable from:
http://independence.seul.org/~donovan/indy.tar.gz 

I think that what needs doing to the website changes quite frequently, but
the new system I proposed is aimed at communicating ideas like this. What
has just been done to the website, what is in desperate need of being
done, and where is it heading.
 
> This way you avoid a lot of talking about nothing, but you will also get
> the spontaneous improvements. The quality remains because you can simply
> not use some "improvements" that you don't like.
> 
> Now all that my mail has resulted in is some discussion about ssc or
> whatever and I still can't TRY if I can be of any help to you.

fyi: SSI ;)

I agree that some of the factors required in helping with the website
might limit some people, but chances are that if you're running Linux, you
have apache on your machine sitting unused. It does not take much to
download and extract the complete website. Perhaps either Donovan or
myself should see about writing a quick howto on setting up apache, and
getting the website to work on your local machine.
 
If you're on a non-linux machine, then it would be harder.

> (If you already have such an infrastructure, please tell me.)

I think that points like this NEED to be made. Don't worry about being
flamed, as long as you don't go shooting your mouth off and don't get
personal with the insults, I won't flame. Constrictive criticism is always
needed on projects like this.
 
David
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