FSD currently does not have any setup to allow the community around it to participate with support and suggestions for improvement (barring the simple email form).
I thus took the liberty to create a product page for FSD (and FSM) on GetSatisfaction.com, which is designed for that purpose.
It's not AGPL but until someone liberates the functionality, I think it's a good idea. I hope to see you all there.
Full story »
bogdanbiv
15 years 45 weeks 3 hours 16 min ago
Some good ideas are posted there!
Some good ideas are posted there!
Please check it out!
dave
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago
A couple of things about this...
1) FSDaily is no longer directly connected to Free Software Magazine. I was a co-founder of FSM and was the senior editor there for over three years. Tony Mobily (owner and Editor in Chief of FSM) is the maintainer for Drigg which is what FSDaily is based off. But Tony doesn't own FSDaily or have any direct input into what goes on here (other than what he does developing Drigg) and I no longer have any input in FSM. Basically, FSM and Drigg = Tony; FSD = me, FSM != FSD
2) I receive between 1 and 2 suggestion/feedback/support emails per month. At this time I can handle this workload alone. The community can't really help with them. When I start getting overwhelmed by emails of this nature I will no doubt be making enough money from this project that I will be able to hire someone to deal with them or I might set up a forum so that people can look there before emailing.
3) for now, the best place to make suggestions is direct to me via email to "staff" AT "fsdaily" DOT "com" (I'm using the staff email address rather than my own email address because that way if someone starts handling support for me I'll redirect the emails for that address to them... for now I get them redirected to my email address). I check my inbox all the time. I won't be checking this getsatisfaction.com site all the time. So emails are better for you not just for me.
4) most of the suggestions made so far at this getsatisfaction.com site have already been made by email and answered by email. Here are the answers again in brief:
* Make it easier to navigate to the linked sites - already have this feature: go here http://www.fsdaily.com/users/****/edit/Settings (replace "****" with your user name) check the box labelled "Links go straight to original stories". Done.
* Feedburner flare for FSD - good idea, takes money and/or time to implement. Will do it when enough money and/or time is available.
* Feed for user FSD activity - good idea, takes money and/or time to implement. Will do it when enough money and/or time is available.
* Submission/Voting Widget for Websites - good idea, takes money and/or time to implement. Will do it when enough money and/or time is available.
Alternatively, because this site is based on the free software CMS Drupal with the module Drigg, these features could be developed by you the community. If you make them before we do then we can implement them sooner.
crimperman
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago
Submission widget
Whilst not a submission widget per se - you could use the javascript from the bookmarklet as the href around the FSD logo. It's a workaround but one that works.
http://www.fsdaily.com/bookmarklets
dave
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago
If you want a way to submit stories...
There is this:
http://www.fsdaily.com/submit_it_links
It's already in use around the net.
I think what db0 is asking for is our voting forms for external use. So people can put our voting forms on their pages allowing their readers to see how many votes their article has and allowing them to vote for the story possibly without even leaving their site. Digg has this already and we want it too (time and money permitting).
db0
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago
And my response
1) I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding but from the way the about page was formatted (and the wikipedia article as well) it gave me the impression that FSD was part of FSM.
2) Well, that's the point really. How many people have a support or suggestion but can't be bothered to send an email? I know that it's a disincentive for me when all I want is to ask a simple question that might be otherwise obvious.
3 & 4) While you do receive support and suggestions, there is no way for other people in the community to see them, and perhaps weight in on them with opinions or improvements. You have already seen that by putting one of my ideas in the open, someone else has commented. Perhaps someone else might take up the task of actually building them as well. However if I had kept them in the email, no-one else but you and me would know.
I see that as a good thing and generally I can't see why you could go wrong with helping build a community around FSD.
Believe me, I have many more stuff I can ask but I hate to pester people. Which is why I prefer an open format like the GS where even if the dev is not available, somoeone else might provide support.
In the end, this whole thing is about helping other people. You don't have to participate Dave but you always can and I think it would be beneficial for both you and the FSD in general.
dave
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago
My turn again :)
1) No worries. I just didn't want to keep giving the impression that it was the case, and I noticed you filed FSD under FSM on GS. Our about page is correct (wikipedia probably isn't - I don't know who has been contributing to writing that page but I haven't even looked at it for months). It just doesn't clearly state that the two projects are no longer officially connected. Tony and I started FSM together. Tony and I started FSD together. But FSM is his project and FSD is mine. We still help each other but they are separate projects. That's info that doesn't seem relevant to the about page.
2) I personally think sending an email is easier than going to a website, signing up, logging in, and posting a comment. I'd rather deal with any issues that arise directly and in one location. As I said, it's not like there are very many issues anyway. I have been planning on writing a FAQ but there haven't been many FAQ anyway... still... I might try and find some time to do that soon.
3 & 4) I think for this a FSDaily forum is better because it would at least be hosted internally. But for now that will have to wait and it will be another place for spammers to post... YAY!
If the community is going to help reduce our (me with FSD and Tony with Drigg) workload then I'm all for it, but if it is just going to give us more things to do then I'm not so keen.
Right now, rather than suggestions for improvement, I need more community = more traffic = more advertising income. Then I can spend money and time working on your ideas. Sorry if my focus is elsewhere right now. I've just spent a lot of money already and I need more coming in before I can think about more going out.
db0
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago
More comments! yay!
1) I'll attempt to change the company behind FSD then. Do you have a company name or somesuch? Else I will just create an FSD company or somesuch. (I'm big on accuracy ;) )
Or I can just leave it as it is.
2) It's a subjective thing really. It all come down to habits I guess. I know people who swear by mailing lists while I absolutely loathe them :)
3) Eh, I generally don't see the need for everything to be hosted internally if you can save time by outsourcing it like that.
At the end of the day, we'll just wait and see what happens. It's quite probable that no-one will use it but it doesn't hurt to have it. It might drive a small amount of traffic your way (you never know) and I hope you'll visit now and then ;)
bogdanbiv
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago
Setup a donation service
1) Setup a donation service:
Not donations = implement asked features,
but Donations = betterment of the site.
2) Could you tell other people why is Drigg useful?
Why other (news)sites might choose it?
What else is needed to make a community around it?
db0
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago
This site is based on FOSS.
This site is based on FOSS. We don't need donations to get site improvements.
I don't get the rest of your comment.
dave
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago
Donations = Spam
Believe it or not all you get out of asking for donations is spam. That's what we got when we tried it at FSM... oh and about $50/year. Which probably didn't even cover us for the time spent deleting the spam. :)
And, unfortunately, I have no skill with promotion or marketing. But if anyone wants to lend a hand with promoting FSD or comes up with some suggestions for promotion, I'm all ears.
db0
15 years 44 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago
Promotion
I would say that what I just did is a form of promotion as every time a new issue is posted, the site is mentioned to the whole community (new activity). Also you can be found through tags, associations and the like.
And finally people can discover it from looking at where their contacts are active ;)