[TAG] found something in the attic...

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Sun, Jan 08, 2006 at 01:26:51PM -0800, Peter Knaggs wrote:
> On 1/7/06, Benjamin A. Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> 
> > [wry look] What we need is a bit of expertise from some marketing genius.
> > Anybody here know Donald Trump personally?
> 
> Well, but there's a difference between
> advertising and marketing.

[laugh] Just illustrates how much I know about it, doesn't it? If I had
to state the difference between the two, I'd... um... well... anyway,
there's this guy named Peter Knaggs you should talk to. :)

> > Besides, as I've said before - how would
> > you tell a GUI to show the 10 largest files
> > in the current directory, including subdirs?
> 
> Yep, that's just the sort of thing users
> of new-fangled enterprise GUI collaboration
> tools run into (let's not single out any
> particular company's product here :) eheh).
> 
> The users hit their quota limit
> on server storage, then find that there's
> no way in the GUI to even sort files by size,
> never mind do the equivalent of "du -s".
> So the users end up making endless requests
> to increase their quota...

Oh, that's got a slightly different mechanism driving it. To the users,
as long as they can offload the problem onto the NOS, it's an
externality: a cost they, personally, don't have to pay. So, runs their
thinking, why *should* they learn about tools, etc.? Why would they even
*want* to? That would make resolving the situation _their_ problem -
i.e., would be a direct cost - so playing stupid even if the tools do
exist is to their benefit.

However, as Rick Moen says in one of his observations, that immutable
stupidity tends to instantly evaporate when people start getting fired.

> > Actually, I believe that there's plenty of space for both, GUIs for
> > those who want them, and CLI apps for the rest of us.
> 
> The "unison" tool is a nice example, where
> it has both a GUI and a command line.
> The GUI makes it really easy for beginners
> to get going with it.

I'm a *big* fan of GUI interfaces for CLI tools. That, to me, gives the
best of both worlds: the availability of the GUI for those who prefer
it, and the CLI for those times when the GUI just can't handle the job.
 
> > I like the idea of articles at all levels, from the very basic to
> > relatively complex, of interest not only to newbies but to professionals
> > as well. I want LG to appeal to a broad audience.
> 
> 
> I was wondering if part of the reason for less
> participation in the LG mailing list itself
> was due to it being written in a way that
> would tend to make it less google-icious i.e.
> it's more of a free flowing discussion. But
> I guess it's just because the TAG list
> archives aren't public so google doesn't
> index them.

Y'know, I'd completely forgotten about that. Is there a reason that they
_aren't_ public? Unless there's something I'm missing, they _definitely_
should be.

> The resulting articles, on the other
> hand, do end up with very high google
> rankings, like "Recursive-resolver nameserver"
> immediately finds Rick's LG #121 article,
> and I noticed a search for
> "digital television linux" now shows
> LG #118 within the top three hits :)

:)

> So I guess the puzzle becomes how to get
> folks, who aren't necessarily trying to
> become authors, to participate in a list
> where we first figure out answers, then try
> to set a discussion frame with the end
> goal being not only to provide the solution
> but also to create a readable article about
> the topic. Tricky :)

Oh, I think that most of our rambling on this list is highly readable.
Seems like perfect meat for Google to me; when I'm searching for a
solution to something, I would far prefer to find a discussion of the
thing rather than just a cut-and-dried answer. In the latter case, I get
to solve the problem, but in the former, I also get to learn something
about it - which may allow me to prevent its recurrence.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *