Re: Connotation analysis for Fedora Project codenames

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 10:26:53AM -0400, Bill Nottingham wrote:
> Robert 'Bob' Jensen (bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) said: 
> > +1
> > 
> > Many of us have been suggesting this for years. How can we make it reality?
> 
> The Board could always take a simple vote; they've been invested with that
> sort of power..
> 
So it seems that among the respondents to this question on this list, the
most popular option is to get rid of release names.  There have been a few
voices asking for either a defined small change to the process targetted
specifically at analyzing names for potential offensiveness in
a multicultural project, and a few voices that have asked for a larger
change to the way names are decided upon (and I think that some of the "get
rid of release names" would be okay with some subset of possible new ways
a release name gets decided).

The arguments for keeping some sort of release name are:

* It gives the distro less of a "cold" feel to the press and potential new
  users of Fedora.

An argument for continuing voting is:
* It gives new contributors a feeling of belonging to the community of
  Fedora Contributors

Some ideas for small change were:
* Ask translators and ambassadors to review the potential names for
  offensive connotations.
* Put an extra column on the wiki to specifically highlight that the release
  names should be vetted by the community for potential offensiveness.
* Ask the Board specically to filter for potential offensiveness.
* Define "potential offensivness" so that we know what we're looking for and
  what we're considering to small to worry about.

The argument for dropping the release names altogether was that the reward
they give to us is small compared to the costs of creating, vetting, and
voting on them.  The additionaly costs about doing an analysis of the
connotations of potential release names was just a reminder that the present
costs are not zero and that een small increases in cost may not be justified
if the benefits are also small.

As a Board member, I am leary of unilaterally removing anything that is seen
as a power granted to the contributors (in this case, deciding on the
release name via voting) but I think I agree with the argument that the
benefits of the release name to the Fedora release product are small.  I'd
be interested in Rex's poll on the F18 release name vote to find out if
there's a majority of (voting) contributors who would like the release name
to simply go away.

I'd also be interested if anyone that likes the release names was interested
in making an alternate proposal for deciding on it that makes it higher
value (marketing team decides; name the release after significant features
of the release.  Go with a single theme for names, etc).

-Toshio

Attachment: pgpGqmPEStD9Z.pgp
Description: PGP signature

_______________________________________________
advisory-board mailing list
advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board

[Index of Archives]     [Fedora Users]     [Fedora Outreach]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora KDE]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Yosemite Forum]     [Linux Audio Users]

  Powered by Linux