A call for help
April 10th, 2008 edited by TinchoHi there,
Once again, we urge you to help us keep this site up and running. Since February we only had three posts, far from the twice a week intended publishing rate (the one article per day idea was dropped long time ago). We desesperately need new articles to publish, remember that this site is made from the material our readers contribute, so it’s up to you to keep it running! We also need help editing articles, but that’s void if we don’t get articles to edit.
Now, we have a only couple of articles to publish, on Sunday you’ll be able to enjoy one and for now we’ll switch to a weekly rate. If things go better, we could go back to twice a week. If things don’t go better, it will be time to end the project.
Thanks for your attention, Tincho.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:33 am
How can i help then because I’m more than willing to.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:35 am
I really enjoy this site, I hope you can find volunteers. (I don’t have the time to help personally)
April 10th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Is that hard for people to write a short article about their favorite obscure package? Come on, move your butts…
April 10th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I will love to help.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Hi,
I’d very much like this site to go on publishing articles, I found out about many interesting programs by reading it. Thanks!
Maybe you need to adjust strategy a little bit: instead of waiting for people to come up with the package name *AND* a description, supply a list of ‘interesting’ packages that haven’t been featured yet so review authors can pick something and write about it. And the list of ‘interesting’ packages could come from readers, too.
The point is that you’re asking people to do two things: 1) find a worthy package and 2) write a review. If you’d split these (allow some people to do 1) and (maybe) others do 2)) you would end up with more to publish. My solution above may not be the best way to do the splitting, but you should find a way to simplify the task.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:23 am
I think it would help with a little incentive. For example, how about allowing the author to add a link to his/her blog in the byline? Just a thought.
By the way, I completely agree with Miron Brezuleanu: making a list of packages you want to review would help to keep the ball rolling.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Hi there.
This is a great site and has brought some great packages to my attention, so keep up the good work! As a relatively new convert to Debian/Ubuntu I’m not really in a position to write an article myself, but I do have a suggestion:
How about running an archive post once a week so those who joined more recently can get to see some of the previously featured packages? That way you could still feature two packages a week without using up all your stock of articles. If you wanted to make sure that you don’t annoy your long-standing subscribers you could feature it as a separate feed.
Just an idea…
Joe
April 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for all the comments on this, I’ll try to answer to all at once.
NekoMiMi-Nju: to contribute, you can check the “Contribute” link at the top of every page.
Miron Brezuleanu: There was already some suggestions on packages to review in an old call for help, we could try that again. You could also suggest things to review just by commenting on this article.
Miron Brezuleanu: every time an author ask us for including a link to his/her personal page or blog, we have done so. If you look carefully you will find a couple of examples.
Joe Kilner: we don’t repost old articles because that would alienate long time readers, and you can also check the archives.
Thanks for the good vibes!
April 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I’d be happy to help with editing and screenshots and such if needed.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I’d be glad to write a few articles only if not my awful English.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I think this project was really a great idea and it would be a shame if it ended. Certainly I’ve learnt some useful things over time. Unfortunately, I can barely keep up with my own work; so could not contribute myself. But just thought I’d thank the creators and entry authors for their hard work and also voice my support for this concept. The effort contributed by all parties is appreciated
April 10th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I wrote the review for Amarok some time back. I’ve really been enjoying this project, its given me some absolutely great pieces of software to think about, and even a few that I use often now.
I’ve been trying to find time to write a review of Picard, by musicbrainz. Hopefully in the near future, I’ll be able to submit that for review, editing, and possible publish on this site.
Keep up the good work.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I think you really don’t need that many articles. If the article is good I can really be very content with only one or two a month as long as the content is good. The quality is of the articles up to now is very good so don’t try to overdo and publish too much.
Keep up the good work!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:57 am
I agree with rtega, I like to read about enthusiastic users of some apps from time to time. An everyday basis would be anyway too harassing for both writers and reader. Going to a weekly/monthly rate would be good for me.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Maybe the main problem is that we all think that the great programs we normaly use a widely known, so one can think he would look stupid writing about it.
Maybe if there would be some way for people to say what they want, so that there exists a more realistic feeling about what most are interested in. Then it would be easier for everyone to present their favorite program for that task.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
For those of you wanting a list:
https://debaday.debian.net/2007/09/27/debaday-needs-your-help-yeah-seriously/
April 12th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Let’s face it: the Debian archive has a finite number of packages, so if Debaday were to publish reviews twice a week, they would run out of possible packages sooner or later :-) Why do we need a fixed schedule? The lack of articles, despite numerous calls for help, clearly indicates that people are not willing to keep up with the proposed posting rate. Let Debaday just publish articles as they come — and they certainly will come, even if not very often.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
There are many small companies that rely on debian. If they have a debian solution/tip can it be linked to?
I try to keep track of a few small (Irish) company blogs and although some tend to be non technical some such as contain a few gems - if only I could find them when I need them rather than trying to read the whole internet :)
One example:
Ghost for Linux http://blog.aplpi.com/index.php/2008/03/11/ghost-for-linux/
April 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
In my opinion, it is not necessary to have a fixed schedule. It is quality that matters, not quantity.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I agree with Ralph and Vasiliy. Even if the site only updates once a month, it still is doing a great service.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
THanks for all the support folks!
About the schedule, I believe that having a regular schedule is much better for readers. I tend to get bored at sites that publish randomly (for example, some webcomics that the author couldn’t cope with) and after some weeks trying in vain to find something new, I walk away.
Turloch: as we don’t publish link listings but full articles, it won’t have much sense to link to them.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Vasiliy, there are over 700 packages in the Games repository alone. At two posts/week, that’s over six years worth of articles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of occasional posts over dropping the site entirely, but a regular schedule of posts would certainly be preferential.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Tincho, most people will probably have your site subscribed with RSS-feed.
But if you want to have more change on your site, what about adding some content, that can be created more easily? For example, news about releases of new versions of software, which had been described here in the past, or something like that?
April 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I think Debian Package of the Week is also fine. Even Debian Package of the month is better than ending this program. I subscribed to the rss feed, and I think a lot of people come here via google. It’s really a good site.
I wish I could submit a entry, but I am only a newbie who had only used Debian GNU/Linux for 1.5 year.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 am
Why try so hard, why not just publish new articles as they come up? I have ‘X of the day’ in my blog too and I don’t care at all how regular it is. If there is X for today than fine else fine. Also quality before quantity please. That’s my 2 cents.