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[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, 2007-04-18 at 16:28 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-04-18 at 19:49 +0100, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
> > On 18/04/07, Karsten Wade <kwade at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
> > > * We could really give attention to some sites we want to give a
> > > marketing boost to
> > 
> > ...and that will provide an improved end-user experience of Fedora and
> > encourage people to discover more about Free Culture (as I like to
> > call it) in general - at least is my take.
> 
> +1
> 
> > >
> > > * Do we want the homepage to become an advertising medium?  This seems a
> > > step in that direction.  Maybe that is OK, maybe not ...
> > 
> > I wouldn't think pointing to one or two sites which are arguably
> > related to the goals of the fedora project would equal advertising -
> > at least not in traditional sense which would lead to your next
> > conclusion.
> > 
> > > I think I like the idea, but I'm a bit concerned about people losing
> > > faith in the homepage because it seems advertising v. informative.
> 
> There are two aspects here -- our goals and perception.
> 
> For our goals, we need to explicitly state the conditions where we
> consider inclusion in that homepage.  It is a potentially very valuable
> space.  Since we have begun already linking from that page to non-Fedora
> Project properties (e.g., fedoraforum.org), we've already opened up the
> door for ideas like yours.  I think that's fine.  But I have a feeling
> this is our last chance to define what we think the rules should be for
> appearing on that page.  Otherwise, someone is going to cry foul that
> they did not appear there, and a higher-level entity such as the Fedora
> Project Board is going to have to make a business-like decision about
> it.  Our job is to make the current rules and offer recommendations to
> FPB if the cry of "Foul!" arises.
> 
> For perception, it is directly related to our goals.  If we don't set
> the guidelines/rules clearly, our intentions are open to interpretation,
> and I'm guessing we'll end up with some users losing faith in our focus.
> 
> In other words, once people get the idea that the homepage is "for sale"
> or otherwise compromised, they'll ignore the whole thing.

I think that the Bookmarks page was advertised for people to check out
and add/remove on the wiki like a voting mechanism.  I think the
"advertising" problem is no more than what it might be in, say,
Rhythmbox (which features links for Magnatune and Jamendo, for example).
If other free culture links bubble up into the distro, it would make
sense to include them.  Then users can read about them and know why
they're tied into some of the desktop apps.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
      Fedora Project:  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PaulWFrields
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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