Is there interest in a blog?

[Andrew Tanenbaum]

Some people have suggested that we have a blog in which people could
post items telling what they were working on, how far they were etc.
These would generally be longer and more technical than the newsgroup,
which is mostly for asking and answering questions. A number of
open-source projects have a blog and it seems to work well there.

I'd like to gauge interest in this before setting it up. Do you think
this is a good idea? Would you be interested in posting items to it from
time to time?

Thanks.

Andy Tanenbaum

[Thomas Madappattu]

It would a good idea to have a blog!. 

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[Patrick]

Hi Andy

I think it would be great to have a blog and I would like to write to it.

This is my third time around with the project. I gave up twice but in
hindsight, it was because I did not understand the project. I think that
a blog would be far more personal and would be a more accurate portrayal
of the state of the project and where we are in terms of of achieving
goals and such. The website is out of date and does not reflect the
great things that have been done recently such as the addition of a new
network stack. Prospective users might be more inclined to read blog
posts written in the first person, more so then older terse newsgroup posts.

-Patrick

[Greg Reagle]

On Sun, May 28, 2017, at 08:12, Andrew Tanenbaum wrote:
> Some people have suggested that we have a blog in which people could
> post items telling what they were working on, how far they were etc.
> These would generally be longer and more technical than the newsgroup,

What newsgroup? Are you referring to this email list
(min...@googlegroups.com)? I used to use Usenet too. :>

> which is mostly for asking and answering questions. A number of
> open-source projects have a blog and it seems to work well there.
> I'd like to gauge interest in this before setting it up. Do you think
> this is a good idea? Would you be interested in posting items to it from
> time to time?

I would love more postings about what is going on with Minix 3,
regardless of what channel they happen to be on. Having said that, I am
already subscribed to this email list and already regularly check it and
I don't want something else to check. So, if the blog posts were
emailed to this list, I'd be very happy with that. Also, there is
already a news section on the website, but I really don't care if that
is used versus a blog.

I don't have any content for posting myself; I just follow what is going
on with interest. I would be a reader not a content provider.

[Jean-Baptiste Boric]

On Sun, May 28, 2017, at 08:12, Andrew Tanenbaum wrote:
> Some people have suggested that we have a blog in which people could
> post items telling what they were working on, how far they were etc.
> These would generally be longer and more technical than the newsgroup,

What newsgroup?  Are you referring to this email list
(min...@googlegroups.com)?  I used to use Usenet too. :>

David posts development-related announcements on the minix-dev Google group, but otherwise announcements are posted on this list.

 

> which is mostly for asking and answering questions. A number of
> open-source projects have a blog and it seems to work well there.
> I'd like to gauge interest in this before setting it up. Do you think
> this is a good idea? Would you be interested in posting items to it from
> time to time?

I would love more postings about what is going on with Minix 3,
regardless of what channel they happen to be on.  Having said that, I am
already subscribed to this email list and already regularly check it and
I don't want something else to check.  So, if the blog posts were
emailed to this list, I'd be very happy with that.  Also, there is
already a news section on the website, but I really don't care if that
is used versus a blog.

The blog would replace the news section on the website. Another reason to have a blog is to improve news visibility to people outside of the community, as casual visitors are more likely to check blog posts than trying to find interesting news in a mailing list.

We can (probably) cross-post here if people want.

[Pablo Pessolani]

It's a good idea. I would post items to it.

Regards.

PAP

---

De: min...@googlegroups.com <min...@googlegroups.com> en nombre de Andrew Tanenbaum <astan...@gmail.com>
Enviado: domingo, 28 de mayo de 2017 09:12 a.m.
Para: minix3
Asunto: [minix3] Is there interest in a blog?

 

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[Ayush Bhat]

A blog is going to be an great idea.
I am sure I miss a lot of things that are being discussed here. A blog will be surely a better idea than newsgroup.

[Garry Ricketson]

I am not a real big fan of "blogs", but I still would be interested and would look at it.
I am not very technically advanced , so it is not likely I would have much , or anything to post,
but occasionally questions.
  Ideally , to me , would be a "forum", like phpBB or SMF, I like that better then mailing lists,blogs, google new groups, etc.
 My reasons for preferring forums, especially SMF or phpBB is the BBCode, and it makes it so much nicer for displaying
code , scripts , etc,...
 In any event I would be interested, and also want to take the opportunity to say thank you for making Minix3 available, and
everything you have done with it,..I really enjoy working with it.
Thanks

[bertbr...@googlemail.com]

I think, its basically a good idea. We should adjust our expectations as a blog needs much love (aka time) to write recent content.

I read basically in each message how small the community is and nothing can be done except the one who's asking is doing it

by himself. If minix cant make reliable progress to write about it, a blog wont be the right medium?

brgds,

Bert

[Daniel Wang]

Absolutely!

On Sunday, May 28, 2017 at 7:26:42 AM UTC-5, Andrew Tanenbaum wrote:

[Sambuc Lionel]

Dear all,


Here are the pros I see:

* In the case of just handling the news page:
+ Replace editing of a static html page for the news page, which requires
shell access to the server just to make announcements.

+ Makes it simpler to prevent forgetting things like publication date, etc...

+ The system proposed generates an RSS feed automatically, for those who
prefer to be informed that way.

+ There is a possibility to setup the system to send emails directly when
posts are published, so that people can register for this service, but I
need to check this further, so no promises.


* If we are ready to use the blog for more than just the news feed
+ We can keep very simply the current news page to only show news, by
presenting there only posts tagged with the "News" label.

+ The system supports the Markdown used on the MINIX3 wiki, and the variant
found on GitHub (GMF), which means it makes it very easy to create a post,
or a series of posts about a specific development and re-use already
written code snippets and/or explanations provided as part of the issue
tracker, or some documentation available on the wiki.

+ We can also use the blog system to write pages, which can be useful for the
MINIX convention pages, for example. If Markdown is not enough, we can also
use HTML tags while writing posts on the system proposed.

+ I still have to try, but it might be possible to have the home page managed
by the blog system, which would simplify my life as I would have only two
themes (for dokuwiki and for Ghost.js) to update in case of changes in the
main (blue) bar of the site, instead of having to chase on top of the wiki
theme all the html files we have around.


I personally believe making it easy to write news and content can at worst change
nothing compared to what we have now, and at best improve the current situation
in terms of updates, content and discoverability for people not following the
google groups.


Given the mostly positive feedback in this thread, I have given a quick shot at
converting all the current news items into the blog system, as well as adapting
the theme slightly to fit into the website (still work in progress).


Here are the results:
* The main blog page: http://blog.minix3.org
* The news feed only: http://blog.minix3.org/tag/news
* The RSS feed: http://blog.minix3.org/rss


If we decide to go forward, I will replace the current news page
http://www.minix3.org/news/index.html
with
http://blog.minix3.org/tag/news
and I can add a "BLOG" entry in the main bar of the site.


Kind regards,

Lionel

[r0ller]

Hi Lionel,

Looks fine, I'd go for it:) Thanks!

Regards,

r0ller

[Rishitha Minol]

Sir, your Idea is great.

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[Claude Cundiff]

I think this would be great! I think it would bring more positive attention to the project as well as help those such as myself
to understand the project better.

We should probably have a general format and guidelines for it without being so rigid as to censor those writing. In other
words, some type of standard expectations but only as a guide.

Thx!

On Sunday, May 28, 2017 at 7:26:42 AM UTC-5, Andrew Tanenbaum wrote: