Ubuntu Website and the Community Link
May 15, 2013 7 Comments
There has been much teeth gnashing about the removal of the ‘Community’ link from the top of the ubuntu.com site. As a member of the Ubuntu Community Council I have tried to gather my thoughts before blogging about this. Recently, I read an article that got me rather upset.
The Community Link:
First I want to layout my thoughts on the primary issue of the ‘Community’ link being moved to the footer. It is my opinion that the importance of the change is elevated by the recent mis-communications between Canonical and the community. Some have pointed out that promises have been made, but not kept. I can categorically state that I, as a member of the Community Council, have seen an improved effort from Canonical to inform the Community Council. As an example we were informed prior to the public discussion of the suggestion ‘click packages’. From my perspective ‘click packages’ are much more likely to have an impact on Ubuntu than the placement of the ‘Community’ link.
There is a UDS session scheduled to discuss this and if you are interested I would suggest you attend. In that blueprint I made a suggestion that some data on page views should be looked at. Peter has posted the following:
AFTER Apr 15, 2013-May 9, 2013 compare to BEFORE Mar 21, 2013-Apr 14, 2013
Pageviews
-32.69%
90,700 vs 134,740Unique Pageviews
-31.54%
76,853 vs 112,261Avg. Time on Page
33.75%
00:01:24 vs 00:01:03Entrances
2.68%
52,548 vs 51,174Bounce Rate %
-1.04%
60.54% vs 61.17%it appears to be a 1/3 drop-off in page views, with a 1/3 equal increase in time on page.
With this data it would appear that there is a drop off and the traffic to the page has decreased. There is a session at UDS to discuss this and if it is important to you I would attend the session and subscribe to the blueprint.
The Community Response:
I want to clearly indicate that this IS NOT aimed at the broad community, but those that historically over-react in a dramatic negative fashion. There have been multiple instances of community members invoking the Hitler meme in regards to Mark Shuttleworth and the Nazi party in regards to Canonical. I can not fathom any rational person invoking this imagery in regards to Mark or Canonical. In all my dealings with Mark he has been respectful, thoughtful and compassionate. When I analyze what Mark values it is the success of Ubuntu. He understands that difficult decisions will need to be made for that to happen. When the Code of Conduct was revised it was to help ensure that the pitfalls other open source projects have been derailed by can be avoided by the Ubuntu project. I will echo that I have yet to work with a Canonical employee who has not been willing to listen to feedback or been disrespectful.
As a community member I find such attacks a violation of the Code of Conduct and as a person I find the comparison to be completely unacceptable. It is one thing to disagree respectfully, but making comparison’s to Hitler or the Nazi party is not acceptable.









