Mailing-List: contact flex-dev-help@incubator.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: flex-dev@incubator.apache.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 07:51:05 +0100
Message-ID: 
 <CAEWfVJkJHbsUcfkQtNT6kKVC=qHVFr9m-CSrp02zOcWPE27=6A@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: On splitting communities and non-code committers (was: Apache Flex
 community website)
From: Bertrand Delacretaz <bdelacretaz@apache.org>
To: flex-dev@incubator.apache.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Hi Brent,

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 12:56 AM, Brent Arnold <brent@brentarnold.com> wrote:
> ...As a member of the Flex community I wanted to contribute in some way, and
> since I'm not an initial committer or anything, I figured I could at least
> do something like setup and host a website --> apacheflex.org.
>
> I realize that the core of the project will remain with apache.org, but I
> felt that we could use a resource for the non-technical aspects of the
> project, i.e. a wiki, forums...

IMO, based on my experience with many Apache projects, it would be
much better if this could happen *within* Apache Flex, as opposed to
potentially creating a split community.

Many Apache projects have some committers who do not commit a single
line of code, but are still "committed" to the project by evangelizing
it, writing docs and tutorials, acting as user's advocates etc.

So, It is totally possible for people involved in community activities
but not in code to become committers, and managing a community website
is IMO totally within scope of Apache Flex.

In summary, if your community-related contributions could happen
*within* Apache Flex as opposed to *besides* it I think that would be
much more powerful. Contrary to what some might think, an Apache
project has a lot of freedom in how it organizes itself, and this
podling's mentors [1] are here to help make things happen as far as
the foundation is concerned, once a project's needs are clearly
identified.

-Bertrand

[1] http://incubator.apache.org/flex/team.html