Server Support

[Thierry Carrez]

Soren Hansen wrote:
> On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 10:54:17PM -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
>> One of the work items listed in:
>>
>> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/server-maverick-community
>>
>> is now:
>>
>> + ubuntu-server IRC channel: both support and devel. Change the topic to
>> + remove Support.
> 
> Oh, wow. I completely missed this. Thanks for pointing this out.
> 
> I hope this is just a suggestion someone put into the Gobby doc at UDS,
> rather than an actual work item.
> 
> Mathias, you're set as the drafter. Can you chime in, please?

I can chime in, I was there.

Jorge Castro was present and said he noticed the Ubuntu Server team
didn't really chat in #ubuntu-server at all, and the channel was quite
dead from a "team discussion" perspective. It was just made of
unanswered support questions that echoed in a big void, which looked bad.

In my case, actually having those unanswered questions kind of prevent
me from using the channel for random development chat. I don't feel like
appearing as an insensitive developer that continues his work and jokes
with co-workers while people beg for help on the channel. And most of
the time I could help them, if only I had the free time[tm] to do so.

So I support the idea that having a separate support channel for -server
would result in a more lively server development channel, where you
could chat about development without (directly) appearing like a
careless bastard^H^H overworked person. When/if I have time to do server
support, I move to the other channel and answer questions. There is
value in having separated topics.

That said, I agree that support should go somewhere well defined, rather
than just being "removed from topic". I've no opinion on how best to
separate them:

* #ubuntu-server = dev // #??? = support
* #ubuntu-server = support // #ubuntu-server-dev = dev
* ...

The second option might actually be more discoverable, since developers
will know where development talk occurs, while it's difficult to change
the habits of the unwashed masses.

-- 
Thierry Carrez
Ubuntu server team