05.26.11
Gemini version available ♊︎Suggestions for Site Change
Summary: A reader’s suggestion regarding the improvement of Techrights and its community’s operation
Some days ago we reached out for advice and for suggestions from loyal readers. One piece of feedback that we received was exceptionally good and we asked for permission to share it. “Suggestions for Techrights,” the message was titled and it contains this very detailed attachment [PDF] that we encourage people to read and give us feedback on. Should we implement the suggested changes? And if not, why not? Please take a moment to read it.
Adding to the above we have:
Grüß Gott Herr Schestowitz,
Yes, indeed, please do share what you would find of value for your readers/colleagues, as the idea was just that, to get them involved, by focusing upon the purpose of your website to be “applied” and put into action. Das Eisen schmieden, solange es heiß ist!
Some additional thoughts…
“The great moral question of the twenty-first century is this: if all knowing, all culture, all art, all useful information can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone; if everyone can have everything, anywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone?”
Fate is for those too weak to determine their own destiny, right?
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!
What is freedom to do everything if you have the ability to do nothing?
shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country’s long-term interests!
Liberty is the prevention of control by others, while Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men, right?
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access of all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity, but the one that removes awareness of other possibilities.
Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes and little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them!
Now is the best time to intelligently apply tomorrows future today!
The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving. Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Alles Gute,
Prinz Kröte
We are always happy to receive such encouraging feedback. Please, dear readers, tell us what you think about Kröte’s PDF. We have been distributing site duties recently, in order to increase and improve output. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
May 27, 2011 at 2:29 am
I’d say that the mechanism for posting and replying needs to be changed to other software. WordPress is fine for blogging but this site has gone so much further than a simple blog. More discussion forum features are needed.
1. email notification of replies
2. ability to change sort order of replies (nested, chronological, reverse chronological, and so on)
3. ability to browse back through older articles
4. ability to search fulltext of older articles, separate from comments
5. ability to search fulltext of comments
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 3:04 am
Aren’t the IRC channels a good replacement? And regarding CMS, it is hard to change.
Needs Sunlight Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 9:45 am
CMS are hard to change but easier to replace. The exising trove of 13000+ excellent articles can stay as it is but new ones created on a new CMS.
About IRC, it is too ephemeral and doesn’t scale. IRC is an amusing supplement but not a replacement for a nice threaded discussion system. Those systems allow people in different time zone and on different work schedules to all participate equally in the discussion.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Yes, I agree. But if we started forums like Phoronix, I doubt there would be much participation. We also rely on identi.ca for multi-party communication.
For CMS we need to stick with what we have for many technical reasons, including cross-referencing. It is hard enough for us to alter site theme, which has been the same at its core since 2006.
linuxcanuck said,
May 27, 2011 at 6:11 am
TechRights needs to be more positive. Right now it is a downer. We know what you are AGAINST, but we need to read more about things your are FOR. Otherwise it does not build anything up but only attempts to tear down. I am not saying to do away with the negative entirely, but it should be a small part of what you are about.
I want to know more about the free software which I use. Free software needs to be promoted and encouraged. People need encouragement too. Using free software is sometimes at a cost. It does not come pre-installed for most users. There are hardware issues that users must sort out plus learn a new OS and file structure. It can be all very difficult or newbies. Advanced users need encouragement too to move onto more advanced Linux distros, many of which we seldom hear about.
I read lots that you write, but skip over much, too. I just feel that I have heard it all before. We need some fresh stories and a fresh attitude. Advocacy for Linux is more than just opposition.
Linux Mint 11 has just come out. This is an ideal opportunity to discuss the Linux desktop and where it is headed. Both Unity and GNOME 3 are headed in a similar direction. Mint is sitting on the fence, but won’t be able to keep GNOME 2.32 forever. Where will it go when GNOME 2.x is phased out by GNOME? Are desktop users going to be forced to change their habits and workflow to match GNOME 3 and Unity? Does this mean that GNOME and Canonical are giving up on desktop computers with large monitors in favour of simplicity and tablet like interfaces?
There are hundreds of stories that aren’t being written. I would like to see TechRights take a lead in asking the tough questions that it always has, but in a way that strengthens and improves our understanding.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 6:16 am
Thanks.I agree with what you say and we have 2 guests posts and an interview coming. These will be positive. The daily links that we post are also overwhelmingly positive.
linuxcanuck Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 7:42 am
I also would like to know more about the people behind TechRights. It helps in understanding a site and improves relations when it is more personal.
It would be good to know also what technology you choose and why.
I wish TechRights much success!
Also Roy!
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 7:46 am
We recently updated this page about editors.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 7:48 am
By the way, threats to Free software were always our expertise. So we focus on the threats, which may make the site look negative (one might say ‘by design’).
twitter said,
June 2, 2011 at 5:49 pm
The FSF does a good job of positive assertion. If you are interested in what software freedom is, please visit their philosophy pages.
There has been a lot of bad news lately. Techrights correctly predicted much of it and Roy deserves credit for that. If you want the news to look better, help us make a happy world of free software or submit your accomplishments in IRC. Techrights will not shy away from exposing evil machinations simply because it is depressing to learn, that will only make things worse in the long run.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 2nd, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Thanks for the kind words.