Re: [Firebird-website] A few thoughts about (new) site structure, and some good news...

[Carlos H. C. <li...@wa...>]

About logo, I'll put online a poll at FBNews about what users thinks
about the currently logo, just to check people people opinion.

PC> 1. I'm sure that Helen would gladly leave this task from hell to
PC> somebody else. But almost nobody in the project is capable to handle the
PC> content, as almost everybody has english as second language. Helen
PC> handles our materials (release notes, announcements, PR, web page
PC> content, everything) for us from the beginning, and she does an
PC> excellent job. Only candidate(s) that could potentially handle it is
PC> someone from Documentation project (Paul?), so ask him/them if they're
PC> interested to take this responsibility. Good luck fishing.

Helen is a very good writer and does this job very well, and I see no
problem with she being kept as the site content supplier when needed.
But there are 3 areas that "history" shows Helen is problematic:

- Many times, she is too aggressive with people, so I would not put
her in any kind of job that requires "talking" with someone else.

- She is always right, and if you criticize anything that she have
done, you will get in trouble.

- She is not open to changes, specially those changes that doesn't
fit in what she think is correct, or doesn't fit in her way of doing
things.

So, yes, Helen is a great writer, and she is very good in this task.

PC> 2. I would gladly relieve myself and pass over the website control if
PC> there would be anyone trustworthy for project admins to pass it to.
PC> Anybody has a chance in past nine years to approach us and work his/her
PC> way up on website and then eventually take full responsibility for it.
PC> But guess what, nobody did. Nobody cared enough about our website to get
PC> over pure clamouring about our "crappy work" and actually do something
PC> with it. Everybody was just happy that somebody else handles it. What's
PC> interesting is that all criticism to our work come only from outside the
PC> project, and nobody from project members (i.e. people who actually work
PC> on something in the project) was ever harsh on us about it.

I understand your point, and I would not expect that any other
currently member of the project would like to take this job, because
they probably are already too busy, or because this is not their
area. This is old problem from the project: lack of human resources.

PC> reality. We have enough good ideas for the eternity, but we're
PC> short-handed. So the best way to "move this task forward" is to help
PC> materialize them. There are plenty things that one can help with.

Maybe it is time to list this things and let people volunteer for it.

PC> Does it mean that you're volunteering to take the full responsibility
PC> for the site? If you're not, there is no honourable way out for us.

I'm not a project member, and afaiu from your above comments, the job
should be taken by some project member. Also, I'm not a professional
webmaster. I created all my sites, but to do that, I only had to make
one person happy: me :)

But, if you or anybody else thinks I would be able to help in any of
the tasks involved in the required changes, I would be glad to help.
But first, I need to know what would be the job and, of course, see if
my currently time and skills would allow me to accomplish it.

[]s
Carlos H. Cantu
www.FireBase.com.br - www.firebirdnews.org
www.warmboot.com.br - blog.firebase.com.br