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Will you help... or just sit back?

Oct 28

Written by: Don Jones
10/28/2007 10:05 AM

This past week was a frustrating one for me. In the midst of teaching a class (which is a long eight-hour day, trust me), I'm also trying to put the final touches on this community before our official launch in November. I'd been feeling pretty good about the community's progress: While we've made it clear that it isn't content-complete, we've been gradually tweaking things and getting everything in place. Many of you have sent in comments and suggestions, and a few have posted them in the forums here - and thank you for those! Nothing is better than a clear, concise suggestion that can be acted upon to improve things for everyone.

But then someone pointed out http://huddledmasses.org/redefining-community/ to me, and I have to say - it was pretty depressing. The author pretty much rips on every aspect of this site without making much in the way of actionable, constructive comments. There's no contact information on the blog, so it's impossible to ask the author for clarification and expansion on the few things which I can interpret as suggestions. It's also impossible to let him know that most of his criticisms have in fact already been addressed as we continue to tweak the site.

But people are of course welcome to their opinions, especially in their own blogs! I'm not upset at the author for his comments; while it's definitely depressing to have your hard work kicked in the shins, it's his opinion and he's welcome to voice it. But what I hope can happen in the future is that this type of comment can be posted in the forums here, or even e-mailed to me, so that they can be acted upon. Simply standing back and kvetching isn't helpful - it's just noisemaking; wading into the situation, offering clear suggestions (rather than simply raising complaints), discussing possible solutions and alternatives, and maybe even offering to help make improvements - those are the things communities are based upon.

With that, I want to address some specific points from this blog:

The community is owned by a 501(c)(6) nonprofit business league. Sponsors of the community are dues-paying members of the league, which is essentially a chamber of commerce in the legal sense. This is now clear on our "about" page; our IRS nonprofit status is still pending but has received a preliminary go-ahead so that we can file taxes under this status for 2007.
The community is not a "commercial junta." The members of the business league do not control community content, only broad direction through an advisory board.
Nobody is conspicuously missing. Any company is free to add their products and services to the products directory, and any company who works with Windows PowerShell is free to join the business league. Obviously, no company is required to do so. Invitations have been extended to every known company working with Windows PowerShell - including companies who are competitors with existing members (as is common in chambers of commerce).
SAPIEN is not "Don Jones' company," although I am employed by them. However, in my capacity as Director of this community, my salary is paid by the business league, not SAPIEN. That's why business league membership is open to any company, including SAPIEN competitors.
The script repository has been searchable since it was first made live, and it now has color-coding (thanks to Hal Rottenberg for pointing out a useful control for doing this) and a tighter formatting scheme for the code. Again, this was simply part of ongoing tweaks to a Web site that was officially listed as "not done," right on the front page.
We require people to register before posting scripts for the simple reason that this is the Internet, and we'd like to try and keep spam and other nonsense out of the ScriptVault and other directories. We do, in fact, have a privacy policy which is viewable when you register or edit your user profile.
The author points out another PowerShell script repository that he helps with - great! I hope he'll also take the time to add it to the Web site directory here, so that folks visiting this community can find it. We're not trying to replace anyone else's independent efforts (although, wheen it makes sense, we're happy to offer them space here if they want it); we're just trying to provide a central place where those efforts can be more easily located.

All of these answers, as well as answers to any questions anyone might have about the community, are available - if you ask. I sincerely hope you will ask your questions, offer your suggestions, and maybe even step in to help make this community the best we can all make it... together.

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Don Jones (MVP)

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Re: Will you help... or just sit back?

Www.Thoughtware.Co.NZ has nothing to add to the multitude of PS information available throughout the web. However, I have taken great pleasure from the real sense of community that has pervaded PS since Jeffrey Snover's first empassioned video introductions.
Amazon has provided my own 'tower of power': Payette, Ford, Kopcyzynski, Wilson, Oakley and, of course, Jones & Hicks.
I took advantage of Sapien's kind offer of an affordable price on the CD PS 101 Introduction to Windows PowerShell - a great instructional tool and a worthy work IMHO to impart knowledge to the unknowing. My thanks to Sapien. I also enjoyed the information contained in the HuddledMasses and was a little dismayed to see the slight on your eforts.
I wish you great success and repeat my thanks.
I look forward to the coming books from Sapien and others, and naturally to Version 2 of PowerShell.
At.

By Andrew Tearle on 10/28/2007 6:24 PM

Re: Will you help... or just sit back?

Generally speaking, it's a little early to ask people to "help" when you launch your site half finished, and a little late after you've complained about the free publicity ;-)

Sorry you felt I did nothing but rip, but honestly, that's the sort of feedback that was getting put in the #PowerShell channel by others too, so I didn't feel it was out of line to post it on my blog, where someone who could do something about it was bound to see it eventually.

What *I* would like to see happen in the future is that the "community" site would have an open feedback mechanism whereby members of the community who didn't wish to become members of the community website could submit their comments without having to first sign up and verify their email address. Maybe then "people" would leave a comment here, instead of doing the easy thing and posting it on their blogs.

By the way ... have you considered harnessing the power of diigo or delicious social bookmarking instead of trying to create a stand-alone repository where people have to submit them? Diigo has "groups" where you can add members by invitation or freely, and you can moderate the links being posted ...

By Jaykul on 10/29/2007 11:47 AM

Re: Will you help... or just sit back?

P.S.

You're adding br's to my comment, but they don't work ... and you're forcing me to log in and then still forcing me to prove I'm human and enter a "security code" ... *sigh*

By Jaykul on 10/29/2007 12:31 PM

Re: Will you help... or just sit back?

@JayKul - Dude, surely you are not saying that you didn't have some method of getting a hold of Don or Marco or heck any of the people who had posted content here on the PowershellCommunity - are you? Personally, I do not care for anonymous comments and don't feel that a site that asks members to identify themselves is an unreasonable request. I too think a method for pulling in Delicious or Diigo lists into the site would be a great thing. But where do you stop? Should the site pull in FURL or Technorati or any of a dozen other social tagging site's powershell lists? Which one should be implemented first? The issue here is not what content should eventually be implemented, but what basics should be available for launch. Personally, I feel that having the structure in place and asking the community to contribute to flushing out the site more fully is wholly appropriate and is an effort to let the community self select who is part of the early "beta" rather than limiting access to some designated "elite" few. To me that is exactly the opposite of openness. I like how PowerShellCommunity.org is proceeding - warts and all and will continue to hang out and contribute here as time permits.

By jbrinkman on 10/29/2007 2:01 PM

Re: Will you help... or just sit back?

Jaykul,
Man I read your blog, 3 words for you: 'Give it up!' just like jbrinkman said "where do you stop?". I love the idea of getting all the Powershell MVPs and repositories together in one place. Right now I have about 5 or 6 different Powershell sites I go to for reference. You're being critical of things that don't really matter to most users, like the whole registering thing. That's common on most sites that I go to and I would rather register and get e-mails once my comment has been replied to so that I can check the solution. I like the fact that Don Jones is not stooping down to your level and criticizing you back he's just saying to join so that your site can get hits. That's really how I know that this is a community site and not just another reference for scripting. The site won't be perfect and there will always be tweaks so start helping and stop sittin' back! I wish I could help but I just started using PowerShell about 3 months ago so its all new to me. Wish all the best to Don J. and his team on this site. Peace.

By valdezdj on 10/30/2007 9:13 AM