samriggs wrote:Do I expect to be addressed about every issue, are you for real????
That would be why I make an issue of everything yes? Or in fact maybe not. Well done for missing the point, you did it with aplomb and lots of words. The "slow forum" thread is now into 3 pages, this thread is now into 2 pages, and where is the communication from any of the Mint team? If they have chipped in they must be doing it on some setting that I don't see. All I see is the "head in the sand" method of communication.
People understand that sometimes glitches happen, they understand that sometimes you go to a site and it's inaccessible. What they don't expect is a credible site having a pattern of inaccessibility that crops up over and over and over and over again with no communication of any issue from the team behind it. Most of us would rather be told of issues, than not. I'd put that in the category of "treating people like grown ups". Well, I say "most people", that may be presumptuous, you decide that for yourself. One of the key factors in any relationship is whether or not someone is upfront and honest with me. I don't expect perfection, we're all human, what I do expect is some acknowledgment of issues, specially when they're increasingly obvious.
Compare that to organizations or companies who refuse to say anything when things go wrong; do you trust them? If they don't even acknowledge the obvious, or minor issues as they arise and are noticed, do you expect them to inform you if they've been hacked, so you can change your login details?
Any community project, the facilities for that community to communicate are vital to everything else. Without that, nothing else works. Having a recurring issue with the forum is like having grit in the engine. In the case of Linux Mint, it's had this before, where it went for ages with regular periods of inaccessibility. It eventually got addressed by being moved to a different host. It was a running joke then, it's happening again. I don't know how long it took to fix the last time, I do remember that it was prolonged enough to become a running joke.
This is like having a pile of garbage randomly appearing at the front door of your building, that visitors and staff have to crawl over or through it to get in. It's not always there, but for plenty of people it's a regular occurrence that lasts for hours at a time. When you pay employees, they have no choice but to crawl over it. When your staff are volunteers they only put up with so much hassle to give you the privilege of helping you. When you are a customer you start to look elsewhere.
When your staff and customers are telling you this is far too regular and asking you to address it, they are telling you they don't want to give someone else their custom, they want you to address an issue that affects them. In a FOSS project, the line between customers and staff is very blurred. Most users are also advocates, technical support and a lot of other roles at various times.
I have been in the position where I see a lot of colleagues grumbling about one issue but nobody is willing to step up and take it to the boss. I've been the one to do that and find that the rest suddenly change their story when the boss asks for confirmation. I've been there a few times, I've gotten that shirt. The difference is that those were paid jobs.
This is a volunteer project, it needs all sorts of contributions, time, money, skills, advocacy etc. I am only going so far with this, if it's getting nowhere I will cut my losses, close my account and wash my hands of the Mint project in favour of something more community orientated where my time and skills are at least accessible to people.
Don't interpret that as "spitting the dummy", "emotional threats" or "if you don't do as I wish I'll leave". It's not a bargaining tool, those who know me know I don't play games like that. It's a simple fact, I've been there before, I'm not going there again. Whatever my aggregate contribution to the Mint project is, whatever value or otherwise people consider it to be will be transferred to another project if there is no action on fixing a long term, regular and obvious problem.
Almost everything in a community is opinion, some share opinions, some don't. With that, some ideas and suggestions we have (including mine) may be accepted, and some rejected. I don't think anyone has any issues on that, I certainly don't. I may disagree on some stuff but I accept what's been decided and modify my own installs accordingly.
Anything that puts regular barriers in place of even having those discussions is serious. The sad part is that the technical part is not the most serious part, it's the complete lack of any communication on it that really annoys. If it's a bug in phpbb then fine, tell us. If it's an increased demand at certain times, then fine, tell us. We are not children, we can cope with stuff. Well, we can if we're actually told.
There is no sign at all of any attention being paid to it in any form. The suggestions about vbullitin are part of what I mean, as are the "chip in more money, get them more server space" sentiments. These are what I'd call "addressing the issue", where are the Mint team on this? All of this is coming from regular forum members.
sorry but no I don't and I wouldn't expect that from anyone although there is a monthly blog that lets us know even how much money came in, which is not much.
