How to avoid "me too" replies to bugs
Sebastiaan Lauwers has posted an interesting piece on his blog about the issue of "me too" noise in Bugzilla and its effect on overall tracker productivity. With popularity, the type of user changes. Initially, when an Open Source project starts, you tend to have very dedicated and very committed individuals helping out. [...] What matters are people who are inherently productive and can provide with quantities of productive feedback. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they win all the arguments, it doesn’t mean they are always right, but at least they offer an opinion, an expertise that helps move the discussion further, rather than circling around the same tiny black hole for ages. Wasting resources is the most destructive thing on the planet, so why do so many do it furiously, and with seemingly no other purpose than to annoy or disturb? This sort of noise has a tendency to drive away the engineering and management types we've sought for a long time to get involved in the public bug tracker, so reducing it is a top priority. bugs.maemo.org should be upgraded to Bugzilla 3.4 around the end of February, focus will be placed on improvements to submission forms, bug view and the voting system once the upgrade is in place. All of which should help focus activity and reduce noise.
Should maemo.org have a "mascot" in addition to the community-sourced logo?
Randall Arnold is asking whether maemo.org needs a mascot which can be used in conjunction with the logo. He says, there's been a long, involved discussion over if this organization should be represented by some sort of character, in addition to the maemo.org logo (or in some cases in lieu of it) and if so, what that should be. The current maemo.org logo was chosen as part of a design competition and voted on by the community. The discussion about a mascot has - over a very long time - evolved from a lighthearted comment to a serious suggestion.
Efforts to launch a maemo.org store of branded caps, mugs etc.
Randall Arnold is also working to start a maemo.org merchandise store. In summary, enough chat, time for work. I don't mind doing it at all; I love this stuff. And if anyone takes issue with what I do, let the flames commence-- but be prepared to offer a solid alternative otherwise I'm deaf. Currently the pilot store resides on CafePress, but hopefully the lower quality and increased overhead of a print-on-demand service can be avoided and Randall's jumpstart will get movement on something more permanent going.
Testing squad getting started
VDVsx is kicking off the community Testing Squad efforts for Februray. Let me start with some clarifications about the Testing Squad, this team is intended to test software done inside the community by volunteers, not software done by Nokia or new FW images (this can happen, if Nokia continue picking beta testers inside the community), so if someone have questions about that please shout :). Additional testers are always welcome, and the presence of the squad shouldn't mean that anyone using particular bits of software from Extras-testing don't test and vote on them.