Facebook and I

net-carver · 2011-06-29 20:59:42

I hope the forum doesn’t die off. Nice and useful other social media may be: but I like the forum. There is a certain stability to it, an independence, despite the problems.

Google just announced their FB alternative and the pope seems to be backing twiter. Personally, I can’t tell which social media site will win out (if any) so should we join them all? Would that dilute the conversations from here, or enrich them? I have no answers.

However, I’ve never used FB and probably never will as I do have a problem with their terms and conditions (having just been tempted to try signing up to see what the fuss was about.)

Destry · 2011-06-29 22:20:44

net-carver wrote:

I hope the forum doesn’t die off.

I’m not saying “die-off”. I agree the forum has a place. Definitely. I just don’t think it’s as big of place as it’s historically been relied on.

hcgtv wrote:

The Textpattern community is this forum, diminishing this forum will in turn diminish the community.

I agree with the first part, but that’s because it’s been cultured that way. I don’t agree with that last part. All signs suggest this community has been diminishing already. And what is the forum community anyway? About 40 (generous number) people who do all the talking (I guess including me). If that’s the community you’re worried about, I don’t think you have to worry. The forum will be around for those folks. No, I would counter that if this community doesn’t leverage environment, it will continue to be pretty invisible to the rest of the world. But, again, if being invisible is this project’s aim, then don’t change a thing, you’re doing good. :)

Personally, I’d like to see more of this kind of thing happening around the world.

hcgtv · 2011-06-29 22:55:36

Destry wrote:

But, again, if being invisible is this project’s aim, then don’t change a thing, you’re doing good. :)

Don’t look at me, you can ask the devs that question.

wet · 2011-06-30 06:05:11

hcgtv wrote:

Don’t look at me, you can ask the devs that question.

Why? When was visibility abandonded being a marketing figure and turned into a technical aspect?

colak · 2011-06-30 06:28:51

Destry wrote

The point is there are people who do use Txp and FB

I agree and I also am fully aware of the marketing value of FB. In that sense I believe that a txp presence is social networking sites is the right thing to do. I just hoped that there was a way for the content to be viewed by non members.

Gocom · 2011-06-30 06:34:10

wet wrote:

Why? When was visibility abandonded being a marketing figure and turned into a technical aspect?

Don’t take it as disrespectful, but then should others market your project for you? Textpattern isn’t our project, it’s yours. If the guys behind it won’t market it (or get official entity to market it for them), then neither really will anyone else. Like, we will talk about it and use Textpattern, share it, but you are the official entity — no one else. You have the keys, anything that goes to the project is up to you, really.

I don’t mind if you don’t do any marketing, push the word out there. It just means you don’t do marketing. From my perspective means that business benefit of using Textpattern is minimal, hard to find professionals for projects and jobs.

wet · 2011-06-30 06:38:22

Gocom wrote:

Textpattern isn’t our project, it’s yours.

Interesting.

Gocom · 2011-06-30 06:57:53

wet wrote:

Interesting.

So, it’s some sort of community effort now then? I don’t see it. TXP is just an open-source project maintained by couple devs at their free-time. Nothing more.

We others are just users. We take what given. Some of us take the code, make forks of it, others make business out of it. Others provide some sort of variety-grade community support. But we are not a personal army or a marketing team, nor strong open source elitist group.

jakob · 2011-06-30 07:01:31

Actually Jukka, you for me are a prime example of “ours”. You’ve been generous and selfless in writing plugins that are in many cases truly useful. I don’t think the devs can be expected to take on all aspects, or can be expected to be experts in all areas. For some it’s just natural to be enthusiastic and want to promote it but not to be expected.

Getting back to the point: is there a reason why the txp FB page can’t be made publicly viewable? I realise that only FB-members can take part in discussions. The other thing to consider is not to spread the available capacity of the members too thinly – or else in the end everything gets watered down.

Gocom · 2011-06-30 07:42:48

jakob wrote:

Actually Jukka, you for me are a prime example of “ours”. You’ve been generous and selfless in writing plugins that are in many cases truly useful.

Heh, thanks. Sure, our plugins are our personal commitment towards Textpattern, hopefully making the CMS more useful. As far as generousness goes, I don’t consider myself generous. I’m at the low-bar, and I should do better. It’s like me throwing a shit at the crowd.

I don’t think the devs can be expected to take on all aspects, or can be expected to be experts in all areas. For some it’s just natural to be enthusiastic and want to promote it but not to be expected.

As a plugin author, and as a full-time dev, I think differently. My comments actually come from the criticism, the pride and the expectation I have directed to myself, which then reflect to my opinions of other projects.

I expect that I provide support for my plugins and the best quality products, no matter what the license is. Personally I also would like that other open source projects, including Textpattern, do the same, no matter what the background of the project is. If you are doing a free project, you do it as good as you can — like you would do a commercial product. You should always drive to be the best, take everything on. The maintainer shouldn’t expect anything from anyone else. Donations and all are fun, but one shouldn’t expect anything.

I don’t expect or require anything from Textpattern or the devs. In my opinion they can do what they consider is best for the project. That’s the sole right the maintainer should have. You do what you do. If you don’t have PR then you don’t have PR. Like for example I don’t have PR and I do not expect anyone else to do it for me. I’m grateful if someone does, but I do not expect it.

Becoming maintainer of an open source project doesn’t give one (like me) a free ticket to heaven, neither it gives one (like me) automatic rights to leave the project unsupported when ever one likes. It’s commitment. You may not always like it, but you still have to do it.

Last edited by Gocom (2011-06-30 07:48:06)

datorhaexa · 2011-06-30 09:24:01

colak wrote:
I agree and I also am fully aware of the marketing value of FB. In that sense I believe that a txp presence is social networking sites is the right thing to do. I just hoped that there was a way for the content to be viewed by non members.

That’s my gripe, as well. One can not even read.
Which reminds me that at Diaspora the only two TXP-tagged people I find is Els and my humble self, although one can actually read without the need to register

As for marketing and devs.. Most devs I know are not the go-public-and-rant type, so I personally would not expect them to do it. I feel that for those of us who have used Txp through the years and are feeling at home with this system, and have a more social inclination, the attempt to make Txp will be a natural drive. Just as natural as thinking in code for others is.

Last edited by datorhaexa (2011-06-30 13:58:00)

michaelkpate · 2011-06-30 13:26:38

We have met the enemy and he is us. – Pogo

What is the most important point in this quote?

Textpattern, now in the hands of a small team of community members is not dead. It does, however, appear to be in something of a coma. The most recent release – a mere double-dot release – was 7 months ago. – Drew McClellan

For me, it is “community members.” We are all “community members” whether we are developers or not. Some people write code. Other create plugins or templates or documenation or whatever. And some people just lurk. For me, there was a mighty long time between this post and that one. Even though I would come back and peruse the board from time to time, there just didn’t seem to be much happening.

But these days we have new releases and facebook groups and meet-ups and 5.0 – it is much more exciting to be around. And when it comes to marketing,

The core developers aren’t any different to anyone else on the forum in that respect. – Zem

To quote some guys from Liverpool…

We’re doing what we can

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#13 2011-06-29 20:59:42

Re: Facebook and I

#14 2011-06-29 22:20:44

Re: Facebook and I

#15 2011-06-29 22:55:36

Re: Facebook and I

#16 2011-06-30 06:05:11

Re: Facebook and I

#17 2011-06-30 06:28:51

Re: Facebook and I

#18 2011-06-30 06:34:10

Re: Facebook and I

#19 2011-06-30 06:38:22

Re: Facebook and I

#20 2011-06-30 06:57:53

Re: Facebook and I

#21 2011-06-30 07:01:31

Re: Facebook and I

#22 2011-06-30 07:42:48

Re: Facebook and I

#23 2011-06-30 09:24:01

Re: Facebook and I

#24 2011-06-30 13:26:38

Re: Facebook and I

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