Re: [Fsfe-uk] AFFS strategy (Was: Beyond bitching...)

[MJ Ray]

Lists and LUGs again in this one:

Graham Seaman <address@hidden> wrote:
> If the FSFE-UK will one day exist as a separate entity, I would assume
> they would like to use this mailing list for their own purposes! But at
> that point I guess we could do a mass-migration to a new list.

I expect this list to continue roughly like this, a more local
version of the FSFE discussion list. If it's like FSFE-Italy,
FSFE-UK will have at least one other list (which already exists)
and probably a subdomain to use for new things.

Lists having a small delay can be a feature, stopping flamewars
getting too hot: it's amazing how well time to reflect cools
things down. I know other lists where the admins keep a two
posts/day limit and they're some of the most useful lists I'm on.

Occassionally, there are problems with slow admin responses to
breakages, but they're quite few and far between and not much
slower in answering than address@hidden, in my experience.

> [...] IMO it would be good to establish a convention
> that individuals report relevant news  on this list (which someone can
> extract and summarise on the website; I'll volunteer if no-one else
> does, though it depends a bit on Alex's progress with blog/wiki software
> etc ;-).

That would be good. Speaking of blog software, new RSS feeds for
http://www.otherwayup.org.uk/planets/software/ would be welcome.

> [...] I volunteer to try and find out more about related
> organisations around europe [...]

Thanks! APRIL in France were worth looking at early on.

Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote:
> [...] But, I don't think there
> is a huge amount we can offer LUGs because we're a different type of
> organisation; we're primarily about campaigning whereas a LUG is a much
> more hands-on thing. There is definitely an overlap and mutual interest
> there, though.

You suggest a rather fixed and narrow idea of LUGs. Some campaign
sometimes, some are purely social, others just do installfests,
some do full-blown presentation sessions and some idle. I think
AFFS could add something for each type, if it wanted: support
information, discussion starters (and beer), installation CDs,
speakers and new members to kick-start. The only question should
be whether it's an efficient use of resources.

Efficiency. I really don't understand why some ctte members want to

1. revisit, restart and redo what works (membership handling
works, but I'll be surprised if the form emails written following
the Directory for Social Change's "Complete Fundraising Handbook"
advice aren't cluelessly rewritten before my next renewal, and
it'll all be done by the buggy webmail system),

2. keep what doesn't (that webmail for frontdesk@, which just
again today replied to the wrong email address for me) and

3. mostly fail to carry out new projects (LUG supplies is
just one of many to be agreed, have someone claim it, then be
ignored and unsupported).

This is a bit inefficient.

-- 
MJ Ray (slef), K. Lynn, England, email see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/