Open Stack

On 5/2/11 4:03 PM, "Matt Dietz" <matt.dietz at rackspace.com> wrote:

>I think a forum as a means of communication is great. However, I'm not
>sure I feel it's the right fit here. My main concern in this regard is
>that there would be a separation of important discussions.

I think the class of questions on a forum would be wildly different than
the questions on a dev mailing list.  Forums would be a great place to ask
questions like "How do I set up my bridge interface to persist on reboot"?
 Questions like these aren't the right questions for the openstack mailing
list, and end-users don't want to bother devs with this sort of thing, so
they walk away from the project before getting it set up.  Properly
moderated, the forums could push dev questions to the mailing list, while
removing distraction from devs and building a community of users.

>I would also be
>concerned about a feeling of false consensus on hot-button topics that see
>activity on one channel but not the other. Finally, we'd be introducing
>yet another fire hose for project communications, and frankly I personally
>wouldn't feel compelled to check both, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I don't see forums as a channel for project communication or consensus
building.  I see it more as a way for users-to-user discussion on topics
like "how I implemented X on top of openstack", or "How can I integrate
system X with my openstack cluster".  Things that don't get discussed on
the dev list.

Another way to have these sorts of discussions would be an openstack-users
list, but I think lists present much more friction to tire-kickers or
intrigued admins.  Forums have a much lower barrier to entry, and
consequently (IMHO) they are better tools for building communities.
Controlling forum spam is an amazing pain, but that's another issue.  :)

Just my opinion, but I think end-user/sysadmin focused forums are a great
idea.

 -- Ron