Re: announcing things like Mike's tour in News column?

[Janek Warchoł]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:54 PM, Graham Percival
<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 05:16:45PM +0200, Janek Warchoł wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:56 AM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > It reflects the news entries in the repository.  When a new LilyPond
>> > Report appears, it _is_ announced there.
>>
>> Yes, it is.  However, in the last 20 months only 2 out of 80 items
>> were neither a release note nor a Report announcement.  That's not a
>> wide variety; personally i find this quite boring (however, i
>> appreciate that the announcements are made regulargly - this ensures
>> our website doesn't appear dead!).
>
> Look at the news from projects like Debian or Guile.  They have
> release news and important technical or organizational events.

Well then, let's have some important project news posted. I'll write a
note about GSoC, and i think we can make an announcement when Mike&Joe
finish new skylines - that's a fairly important project news.
On the other hand, look at
http://www.gnome.org/news/
http://www.freebsd.org/ - they even list new contributors in the news!

>> > The LilyPond Report is the
>> > place for more transitory news items of non-technical interest.
>>
>> I don't agree that LilyPond Report is a place for non-technical /news/
>> of this kind.
>
> It could be.
>
>> It's something you read because you're a part of the community, not
>> because you want to inform yourself.
>
> It could be.
>
>> Additionally, it is released
>> monthly - most of the /news/ are not new anymore after a month.
>
> It could be released more often.

Hmm.  Isn't it better to have specialization?  I'd say that LilyPond
Report is meant as a fluffy and informal column (no offense intended,
i like it this way!).

> Bottom line: I think our website should be a place of solid
> technical details and project news.  For more "community" news, I
> suggest that the LilyPond Report is the best venue.

I roughly agree, but how would you classify something like premiere of
Valentin's opera?  It was clearly a community news, but at the same
time i think it was important for the project, as AFAIK it was the
first such big, public project done with Lily.
Another example: a new edition (created using LilyPond) of some
significant work is released (for example something similar to Open
Goldberg Variations) - i'd say that it's important news for the
project itself.

> It can come
> out faster or slower, it can have news about baking bread or
> concerts, it can contain blinking headlines and pictures of
> kittens.

Sure, pictures of kittens are not meant for the website :)

> It would be nice, of course, if more people worked on it, and it
> became even more inclusive.  Eluze could interview Colin Hall
> about bug handling, then next month they could switch roles; or
> they could just joint-write a piece about the joys and pains of
> being a (relatively) new Bug Squad member.  Colin Campbell could
> write about folk music in Alberta and how lilypond is used in
> bluegrass music (or not).

+1

> I think it needs to come from people other than the main
> developers, though.  We're all too burnt out and overworked to get
> enthusiastic about something like this.

Maybe.
As for the news, i suggest a following solution: when someone feels
like posting some news, he puts the note up for review, which will
work mostly as a vote (whether to post it or not).

cheers,
Janek