Community News Window Pane

[Daniel J Sebald]

Here is something that I'm just aware of with the new build--Community 
News window, a noticeable feature added so close to a release.  For 
multiple reasons, could we get rid of the Community News?

1) It really clutters the space upon first impression.  There is a good 
balance to strike with information content, and it is easy to be too 
busy with too many window panes.

2) This comment makes one cringe:

"This window will be used to inform you about Octave community events. 
Octave may show it to you even if you've chosen hide the window by 
default. We'll try not to bother you too much, but we do want to keep 
you up to date with the latest information about important bug fixes, 
new releases, or any other news that all Octave users should be aware of.
— The Octave Developers, October 8, 2013"

"This window will be used to"
Instead of providing actual community news, it tells one what it will be 
used for in the future.  Can we add thirty different features like that, 
with just an explanation of what's to come?

"Octave may show it to you even if you've chosen hide the window"
Like so many software updates, html reroutes, etc. Octave too now wants 
to join you in your living room.

"We'll try not to bother you too much,"
Ah!

"latest information about important bug fixes"
Admitting Octave is full of bugs.

3) Who is going to maintain this community news?  We've had this 
discussion at OctConf's about just exactly how much we can keep even 
developers up-to-date on things.  There are probably full-time software 
people at bigger companies who maintain community news types of things. 
 Octave doesn't have that resource bandwidth.

Dan