Visit the forum instructions to learn how to post to the forum, enable email notifications, subscribe to a category to receive emails when there are new discussions (like a mailing list), bookmark discussions and to see other tips to get the most out of our forum!
Why is the OSE Forum not linked anymore in the main page?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    roleic
     
    October 2013
    Since some time the link to the forum in the menu on the right side of the initial OSE page is gone (as of Oct 2013).
    Why is that?
    Is it a mishap?
    Or is it some kind of censorship because the forum contains also criticism or unwanted perspectives?
    Or perhaps there is fear of loosing donors or sponsors if also deviating opinions are expressed?

    In either case it would be appreciated if there would be some statement about the reason of the absence of that link and the future policy of OSE concerning the forum.

    This is an open source project after all. So people will form opinions and possibly express them. Either in the official forum or in an unofficial one. The more people do that the better for the project. If criticism is expressed then in most cases this is done with the intention to point out weaknesses and risks in order to help the project to improve not to destroy it. Of course there is also now and then some destructive criticism. But usually that is dealt with by comments of the majority of supportive forum users.

    In the long run open source projects benefit from forum debates. Suppressing or hindering debate harms a project.

    I hope OSE will take these thoughts into their considerations.
    Thanks
     
  • 3 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    Katie_Whitman
     
    October 2013

    roleic, Please access the forum on OSE's wiki main page under OSE Orientation.

    All your points are valid. Keep the feedback coming. Best, Katie

     
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    roleic
     
    October 2013
    thanks Katie for your (partial) answer.
    Without your pointing out the new location of the link to this forum I would not easily have found it.

    You did not clearly mention what the reason is to move this link from a previously very prominent location on the first page to a much less prominent one.
    And you did not tell us by when OSE is planning to put the forum link back on the first page...;-)

    You only said "All your points are valid". Does this include my speculation on censorship and fear of loosing donors? ...
    This kind of hide and seek and "politically correct speech" is normally beneath open source projects because it would leave a stale after-taste of manipulating the "stupid masses" of contributors towards how and where to leave their contributions. But contributors donating their spare time are very shy game...

    Only readiness and willingness to accept uncomfortable questions and deal with them pro-actively demonstrates openness.
    I read your short resume on this site. I am impressed and happy that OSE has somebody with experiences and capabilities like yours. However, your former employer (US Navy) is not really famous for its openness. Probably even the menu plan of a ship's galley is top-secret. Let alone the ingredients :-) Therefore it can be assumed that openness and subtle handling of volunteers around an open-source project is not something you can learn much about in the Navy. I would be happy to be convinced otherwise.

    And exactly the subtle leading of such volunteers can make or break an open source project. Raising money is important but keeping volunteers contributing work and perspectives is important too.
    Books like this or this might be useful. The initial break-through-analysis about what makes open source software projects function by Eric S. Raymond in his famous essay "Cathedral & Bazaar" explains some of the psychology of OSS contributors which might also be valid for open hardware projects.
     
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    eBelleBell
     
    November 2013
    Probably due to the constructive criticism people were making in this thread: http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/1004/why-is-ose-so-quiet-lately

    Also wondering, did the product manager Gary De Mercurio quit/ get fired? No updates on his log for months, and his only comment in the forum was taken down and replaced with:

     "kishijoeten


    April 9


    Flag




    Comment has been hidden until an Official announcement can be made by OSE"


    Another ragequit? But he was so optimistic...
     
Add a Comment

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Login with Facebook Sign In with Google Sign In with OpenID Sign In with Twitter
Sign In Apply for Membership

Categories

In this Discussion

Loading