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

Yes, then we can get some of those dependencies knocked off. J


----------------------------
julee@adobe.com
@adobejulee

From:  Peter Lubbers <peterlubbers@google.com>
Date:  Wednesday, April 10, 2013 2:12 PM
To:  julee <julee@adobe.com>
Cc:  Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org>, Jonathan Garbee <jonathan@garbee.me>,
"public-webplatform@w3.org" <public-webplatform@w3.org>
Subject:  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
> <http://project.webplatform.org> , our issue
> tracker.
> 
> 
> * After that, add heading:
> 
> 
> project.webplatform.org <http://project.webplatform.org>
> 
> * After
> 
> 
>   and port over old issues.
> 
> 
> Add:
> 
>   In addition, project.webplatform.org <http://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 <http://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
>> <http://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
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
> 
> 
>