Re: Blog post for taking the Q&A system offline.

Since Scott just posted the blog post about the SF Doc Sprint, can we wait
with posting this one for a day or two?


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 1:15 PM, Julee <julee@adobe.com> wrote:

> Hi, everyone:
>
> Before we announce the close of forums, can we address the global nav
> issues? I'll send out a separate email, delimiting the dependancies.
>
> For the blog post, here's some suggestions:
>
> * Change title to something more inclusive, such as: Refining our
> communications channels
>
>
> * Change:
>
>   Email lists were another
>
> to:
>
>
>  Email lists were another channel of communication
>
> * Add heading:
>
>   After "...like the popular and useful StackOverflow."
>
> Add:
>
>   Suspending forums
>
>
> * Change:
>
>   we are closing down the Q&A forum
>
>
>
> to:
>
>   we are suspending the Q&A forum
>
>
>
> * Change:
>
>   IRC, email, telcons, doc sprints, and our issue tracker.
>
> to:
>
>   IRC, email, telcons, doc sprints, and project.webplatform.org, our issue
> tracker.
>
>
> * After that, add heading:
>
>
> project.webplatform.org
>
> * After
>
>
>   and port over old issues.
>
>
> Add:
>
>   In addition, project.webplatform.org has a system where anyone can
> propose an idea, and everyone can comment in context.
>
>
> * Add heading
>
> After: site¹s look-and-feel.
>
> Add:
>
> GitHub
>
>
> * In last paragraph, change:
>
> , and our issue tracker,
>
> To
>
> , and project.webplatform.org,
>
>
>
> HTH
>
> J
>
> ----------------------------
> julee@adobe.com
> @adobejulee
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org>
> Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:50 PM
> To: Jonathan Garbee <jonathan@garbee.me>
> Cc: "public-webplatform@w3.org" <public-webplatform@w3.org>
> Subject: Re: Blog post for taking the Q&A system offline.
>
> >Hi, folks-
> >
> >Here's the rough first draft, without the links to resources. Feedback
> >welcome!
> >
> >  http://blog.webplatform.org/?p=318&preview=true
> >
> >[[
> >Suspending Q&A Forums
> >Apr 10 2013 by Shepazu
> >
> >When we launched WebPlatform.org, we wanted to have plenty of ways for
> >the community to talk back to us about how to improve the site, and how
> >to pitch in. IRC was a familiar option for many of us. Email lists were
> >another, for long-term asynchronous discussions. An issue tracker was
> >important to make sure we knew what needed to be done, and how it was
> >progressing. An inline comments extension for Mediawiki was developed as
> >an improvement on Talk pages. Community teleconferences to talk about
> >tasks and progress. Doc Sprints to onramp new people into the community,
> >and get work done. And a Q&A forum, like the popular and useful
> >StackOverflow.
> >
> >After evaluating the most productive ways that our community has used
> >each of these channels, we are closing down the Q&A forum, and refining
> >some of our other communication processes.
> >
> >The software we used for the Q&A forum, Question2Answer, seemed to
> >perform the task well. Our problem was communicating how to use the
> >forums, and integrating feedback into our workflow. People tended to use
> >the Q&A much as they would StackOverflow, to ask technical, pragmatic
> >questions about doing Web development. Though our intent for it was more
> >to act as a living FAQ and suggestion board for content on Web Platform
> >Docs, questions about Web development were natural, and we did try to
> >use these questions to help guide us in what content we would create for
> >WPD. But the Q&A forums were never as focused as other channels, and
> >ultimately there was not enough energy in our fledgling community to
> >mine the Q&A forums for gems while keeping our eyes and hands on the
> >tasks ahead of us. So, we¹ve decided to close down the Q&A forums to
> >refocus on what is working well: IRC, email, telcons, doc sprints, and
> >our issue tracker.
> >
> >We¹re also looking at refining those communication channels we are
> >keeping around. We started out with W3C¹s go-to issue tracker, Bugzilla,
> >but found it lacking. One of our most active contributors, Garbee,
> >researched alternative, and convinced us that The Bug Genie has the
> >feature set we wanted for not only filing and managing issues, but
> >overall project management as well; he is taking the initiative to
> >configure our new instance at project.webplatform.org, and port over old
> >issues. Another active contributor, Frozenice, has been researching The
> >Bug Genie¹s API, so we can push issues directly in via the inline
> >comment system in the wiki. Two W3C staff, Denis Ah-Kang and Lea Verou,
> >have also helped by respectively installing the system and skinning it
> >to match our site¹s look-and-feel.
> >
> >We are also strengthening one communications channel that we initially
> >undervalued: Github. We are putting infrastructure into place to make
> >all the code for WebPlatform.org available through Github, including our
> >MediaWiki extensions, templates, skins, and stylesheets.
> >
> >We don¹t know yet if we are retiring the Q&A forums forever. We are
> >keeping the software installed, with all the questions and answers
> >intact, but are not allowing any new questions or answers. Once our
> >primary and immediate goal of documenting the Open Web Platform is more
> >mature, we may decide to reopen the Q&A forums to allow people to
> >discuss Web development, if that¹s what the community wants. But for
> >now, we encourage people to get involved through email, IRC, our issue
> >tracker, or by just diving in and helping create and edit content.
> >]]
> >
> >Regards-
> >-Doug
> >
> >On 4/10/13 3:05 PM, Doug Schepers wrote:
> >> Hi, Garbee-
> >>
> >> I'll write this today.
> >>
> >> Regards-
> >> -Doug
> >>
> >> On 4/10/13 3:03 PM, Jonathan Garbee wrote:
> >>> We should try to get a blog post written for the Q&A system being taken
> >>> down. This way we can post it and finally take the software and put it
> >>> out of commission for the time being.
> >>>
> >>> If I recall the email thread on taking it down correctly we had decided
> >>> that it currently doesn't have a solid use-case with the current state
> >>> of things. Further it hasn't had much use since the initial launch.
> >>> Although we are taking it offline for now, it may come back later once
> >>> the documentation is worked on more and we see a valid use for it.
> >>>
> >>> Did I miss anything major from our conversation (probably did)? Is
> >>> anyone up to writing this post?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> -Garbee
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>