[OSM-talk] Contributing to PL2 (was: Re: Thoughts on OSM design, and looking forward and back)

[Randy]

Steve Bennett wrote:

>On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 12:05 AM, Dave Stubbs <osm.list at randomjunk.co.uk> 
>wrote:
>
>Sure, but I think you missed my point a bit. If I had already known
>that help was wanted, and if I had already signed up to the dev list
>(which I didn't realise existed until now), then I guess I would have
>seen those posts. But the issue is how to attract new developers,
>isn't it?
>
>Btw, the potlatch-dev list is extremely quiet. No posts for February so 
>far.
>http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/potlatch-dev/
>
>Steve

So, Steve, is your point a complaint or an offer to help (or both)? And if 
a complaint, do you have a suggestion for improvement? Do you want to see 
development opportunities advertised in talk more, or something else?

In my opinion, complaints without constructive suggestions are the second 
most likely reason (with personal attacks being the first) for threads to 
degenerate into flame wars. And, I'm very sure that is not your intent.

My personal thought: Maybe we need an announce list, which is nothing more 
than a list for folks to announce various opportunities, or new (or old) 
products periodically, with a general agreement (or moderation) that the 
only allowed replies are requests for more information or their responses.

It could include announcements for mapping party (or not?), development 
opportunities, product releases or revisions, a new wiki page for ideas 
for a simple editor, etc. With a once a month repeat annoucement being 
allowed, so new folks wouldn't have to go to the archives to catch up. 
Keeping the chatter to a minimun would make it easier to quickly scan the 
list, rather than wading through a lot of stuff on talk. Where dialog is 
needed the topic could move to talk, or a dev list, or one-to-one.

-- 
Randy