I’m currently writing a community blog post about the revitalization of the Server Working Group, where I have been involved (and still are). So I got to thinking about docs in light of those experiences.
Facts about contributors & members
- We started with 8 participants, which is still the maximum we gained at a meeting.
- A total of 11 participants showed up over time.
- In April (the latest 4 meetings) there were 4 steady participants (bcotton, darknao, pboy, shaunm) and 2 occasional ones (copperi, pbokoc)
- Almost all ‘actions’ were spread over 2 participants (bcotton & darknao), a few over 2 others (pboy & pbokoc)
Given that bcotton’s engagement is temporary, after 2 months, obviously a kind of ‘core team’ of 2 1/2 people has mingled out. Not particularly overcrowded.
The question of membership and decision making
py0xc3 has compiled a current status list:
- 9 current group members wanting to continue
- 3 of them active since revitalization meeting, the others didn’t even show up once
- 5 intend to join
- 1 steadily active
- 2 now and then
- 1 did show up once
- 1 didn’t show up yet
- 36 current members
- 36 not even responded
In seamanship one would say: very unstable ship, more ballast than pay load
It may be time to make a cleanup
- Contacting those where contributions still seem possible.
- Deleting all others, especially also commit privs. for the repos.
Membership documentation and commitment
We had the idea to generate a member’s list, but didn’t so far.
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Re-activation of the FAS group and adding those participants who until now steadily participated and contributed (and, of course, want to be in the group)
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Creating a member’s list in our team docs that contains name, email, and intended type of contribution (we don’t need just a "I want to be a member).
-
Communicate the change (and call for contributors) in the community (user list, devel list, community blog, etc)
Problem with our membership situation: a long list of people who are “sort of” in, but de facto are doing nothing, create a paralyzing context, hinder any form of goal-oriented awakening, and lead to churn of interested parties rather than joining.
What we have achieved so far
User relevant improvements
- search capability (darknao)
- date of the latest update (darknao)
- improved visibility on download pages (darknao, pboy)
- at least a PoC to improve content / installation guide(s) (pboy)
- created a how-to contribute to release notes (pbokoc)
Wear & tear
- link to “latest” (darknao)
- migration of repositories (darknao)
- tidying up the unfinished issues (not yet finished) (all)
Miscellaneous
- a long list of ideas, announcements, intentions, never touched or assigned to someone
Maybe (hopefully) I missed something right out of my head.
The current, more or less spontaneous touching of isolated tasks hinders clearly visible and comprehensible success feedback and goal orientation. Such a situation is not attractive for new members (nor for existing).