People.SqueakFoundation.org People (time for some cleanup)

We now have 342 users registered at

http://people.squeakfoundation.org

of those 68 have never been certified by anyone and I suspect a large
number of those are invalid/non-Squeak community accounts.

I would like to call on everyone to go through the list of people paying
particular attention to those marked as Observer.  If you know the
person, and are reasonably certain they created the account, and if the
person has any real interest in Squeak at all, go ahead and assign them
at least Apprentice certification.  If you know the person but are
unsure whether they created the account, please check with them to be
sure before certifying them.

If you know them but know that their interest in Squeak was merely
fleeting, or they registered on the site not realizing that it had
anything to do with actual community status, please ask them whether
they are sure they need the account.  If so, at least request that they
add some real information about themselves so it makes it easier to tell
the real from the bogus accounts.  If not, please have them contact me
and I would be quite happy to remove their account.

Similarly I see that a few people have created more than one account.
Possibly because they forgot they had the account or because they forgot
the password to their original account.  Again if this fits you contact
me and we will discuss what to do.

Also, everyone should go through their own account information and make
sure it is accurate and reasonably up to date.

If you have forgotten your password, contact me.

Thanks,

Ken

Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you email me about an account, yours or
anyone else's, please include the account name in the email.  Thanks.

Ken

On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 15:25 -0600, Ken Causey wrote:

On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 15:25 -0600, Ken Causey wrote:
> We now have 342 users registered at
>
> http://people.squeakfoundation.org
>
> of those 68 have never been certified by anyone and I suspect a large
> number of those are invalid/non-Squeak community accounts.
>

Hi,

I spent a little time the last week looking at people.squeakfoundation.
I'm a developer which has now about 12 years of experience in
programming. I'm monitoring squeak since 1998. And now I got the
chance to do a real project with squeak, seaside,....

My experience with people.squeakfoundation is the following. I
don't remember when I signed up. Signing up is exciting every
time you do because you like to be a part of it.
But in my opinion people.squeakfoundation is very frustrating
at first place. You can sign up easily but then you are stuck.
You can do nothing being an Observer. Why should I come back?
I recognized this reading your article complaining about the actual
status of the site. Being an Observer I couldn't post an answer
to your article. Why should I use the side? Should I come back
every week looking if someone was willing to raise my status? But
then I write down which projects I like while I'm not able to
click on the projects as you suppose being an Observer.

You wrote about the misuse of the login name. But then why is
there a choice for the username? Wouldn't it be feasible to
use the combination FirstnameLastname as login account? For
me I find your critics right but I can't change my username
to something more known (ok I'm still unknown :) ). I think the
only thing people know is the email address and possibly the
real name of other people. This is my guess thinking that most
of the people know each other from the mailing list.

I think there is more to fix then the usage of the users.

My two cents,

Norbert

On Wed, 2006-11-29 at 00:43 +0100, Norbert Hartl wrote: You signed up on the 18th which you can tell from the entry in the
Recent People Joining list (as long as it remains in the list of course:

18 Nov 2006 noha
OK, first of all, I won't deny that there is little immediate
gratification.  I think you've noticed that you can at least use the
diary (since you added an entry, blank though it is) immediately.  To a
large extent you have to be patient.  Not a lot of us are actively
watching for new people and certifying.  On that note though I
distinctly remember going through the list since the eighteenth and
while I can't specifically remember looking at your entry, if I missed
it it was accidental.  Also, if you had the information then that you
have now I would certainly have given you Apprentice status (which I
have now done).  If you did then I have to apologize for missing you
somehow.  Also it's probably been nearly a week since I last checked.
I certainly won't deny that there is a LOT that could be better about
people.squeakfoundation.org.  You're not going to find me (or the person
who originally set it up) defending it as the be-all end-all of social
sites.  This site is more or less a quick setup of the Advogato system
(an old Apache 1.x module VirguleDb written in of course C).  Since it
is C most of us cringe when we thing about modifying it.   A Squeak
based replacement has certainly been discussed.  But the reality around
here is that there are always more ideas than time.  So in practice we
just do the best we can with what we have and try to prioritize.  I
can't say that an improved system is a terribly high priority at this
time.

As far as the issue of your username.  If you really wish to have it
changed let me know to what you would like it changed and I will see
what I can do.

> My two cents,
>
> Norbert

Thanks,

Ken

P.S. Certification updates are done by a cronjob and so don't occur
immediately.  If you check it and are still an Observer, be patient and
check back again later.