[wp-hackers] Community Views on Now and the Future

[Rich Bowen]

Scott Merrill wrote:
> Ryan Boren said:
>> Maybe even three IRC channels.
>>
>> #wordpress - Community chat, rag on the devs and their egomaniacal
>> stupidity, discuss impending demise of WP, rant about politics,
>> flirt, etc.
>>
>> #wordpress-dev - Design and implementation of core WP and plugins.
>>
>> #wordpress-help - Help users with problems and questions.
> 
> There was a time when #wordpress was the place for help.  Matt has
> consistently steered people away from #wordpress because he wants
> people to use the forums.  His rationale is legitimate, but Matt's
> preferences do not coincide with everyone else's.

"Matt's preferences do not coincide with everyone else's." This seems to
be a common theme. What I find fascinating about this theme is that the
response seems to be consistently "therefore Matt is right, because it's
Matt's project." My view of Open Source is that it's not any one
person's project, and that the community is always right. But, as I
mentioned earlier, this is a specific view of Open Source that not
everyone agrees with.

> Matt consistently refuses to assign ops to anyone in #wordpress on a
> regular basis in order to keep it on topic.

It's never been clear to me what "on topic" might mean. If we can't talk
about wordpress support issues, then what does that leave?

Personally, I find web-based support forums cumbersome and hard to use.
And I'm *far* less likely to help on one, simply because I forget to
check it regularly enough. On IRC or email lists, I'm likely to answer
questions immediately. Having multiple support forums is only goodness.

> How many other projects have a general #project channel with a
> separate #project-help channel?

Several do, and it's irritating. The #project channel consists of:
<newbie> I have a question about my grommit
<oldie> Go to #project-support

.. then, on #project-support

<newbie> I have a question about my grommit
<oldie> I'd *love* to help you with that.

Yeah. That saved time.

-- 
Rich Bowen
rbowen at rcbowen.com