[clue] Ettiquette and volunteers

Crawford Rainwater crawford.rainwater at linux-etc.com
Sat Feb 5 14:26:57 MST 2011


Folks:

Perhaps this might be touching on Matt Dew's presentation a tad early, thus I hope not to spoil anything from my post as well.  My apologies to Matt in advance if this does spoil his presentation some though in theme and topic.  This is also not focus on anyone in particular, so do not personalize it unless you feel you are doing such of course.

When people started requesting "I want this...with CLUE." it was a nice to hear some "fresh ideas" to help enhance this Linux user group I said to myself.  I have been involved with CLUE since 2001 myself.  I even stepped up on a few ideas with running CLUE-North and the InstallFests for 5-6 years along with the server maintenance work for a similar time frame.

Then it the requests started to become "I want this...and this...and this...with CLUE." which became a bit trying to even perturbing I must admit.

Case example: The CLUE web site migration from "old" to a CMS.
The idea was being pitched around a bit since middle of 2010.  There were even a few presentations and threads about which CMS to use.  I would like to thank everyone that volunteered to show off their CMS of choice.  It was nice to see what possibilities are out there indeed.

Then came the reality.  If CLUE was going to migrate to a CMS based web site, who was going to do the work?  There were a few people in the early or learning stages with CMS's, though only a few who have actually built and done such.  I am not calling myself personally an expert of Drupal by far.  Linux ETC is currently using it for a number of sites including our own and the web conferencing center in a simplified way (at least I think it is since I am not a PHP nor DB developer by a long stretch, nor claim to be).  

To top things off, futility erupted and was unfortunate in the timing where CLUE had Jed resigned as web master.  Ironically, no one stepped forward to assist the need here as well.  So I took it upon myself and volunteered to do a rather quick build and migration of CLUE's "old" web site into the CMS.  It is still an ongoing process since I am doing this as a volunteer in my personal free time.  I am not saying I do not enjoy this, I am just saying time is a valued commodity from my personal perspective as I suspect it is such with others.

Point:
A volunteer is just that.  Someone who might have some desire to donate a resource or two to assist a "cause" or "group".  Do not abuse such.

Logistics:
Yes, the "new" CLUE web site is a CMS via Drupal.  However...preserving and migrating "old" to "new" takes time.  I am also trying to mimic the same content and features currently with the "old" site.  This is coming along with forward progress, yes.  Though again, it takes time.  And it seems very few have stepped up to assist here on this need.

When I see, "I want..." with the CLUE CMS web site from others, it is quite trying when it is something not with the "old" site.  When it is "hey, you missed something", completely different (side note: my thanks and kudos to those catching the dead/bad URLs or missing items AND reporting them to me to be fixed).  It would be nice when an "I want..." comes with "I also know how to do..." complimenting the request, but that seems to be not often the case.

I did make two "sandboxes" for Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 for those wanting such to research and test out without interfering with the prime need once again, migration of "old" site to CMS based site as well as the "main" CLUE web site or presence.  These are meant to help facilitate those wanting to "figure things out" a bit such as Forums, Polls, and such.  I am also not the only administrator level person for these sites as well.  However, if you break it, you better work on fixing it or at least ask for assistance as well. ;-)

In the end, the Open Source community as well as Linux user groups are made of volunteers.  Unfortunately and to paraphrase Matt Dew, there are quite a few leeches out there who are also taking things for granted.  Do not take those who volunteer for granted.  Otherwise, you might wake up one day and realize what is now gone because of others.  That said, have patience in waiting and politely suggesting ideas for these volunteers.  It goes a bit farther in the end with most.

FWIW.

--- Crawford

The Linux ETC Company
10121 Yates Court
Westminster, CO 80031 USA
voice:  +1.303.604.2550
web:    http://www.linux-etc.com


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