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• Launchpad entry: https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/forum-ambassadors

• Packages affected:

Last agenda and discussion

• go through unresolved issues
• going through document and cleaning up the document
• define tasks of Forum Ambassadors, discuss evaluating requests and give examples of things a FA could do
• define criteria for Forum Ambassadors
• defining tasks of Forum Ambassadors leaders
• define criteria for Forum Ambassadors leaders
• An example of "if you were a forum ambassador, what would you take to the devs today?" ie, what are the sorts of actual questions that would be asked. use cases ?
• figuring out what people would do as a FA today.
• go a bit more into evaluating forum users' requests
• cleanup braindump
• anything else ??

Summary

This document specifies how to improve communication (bugs, ideas, forum users feedback) between the forums and the developers. The idea is to elect Forum Ambassadors and/or have a special forum for this to help to improve communication.

We will create a forum section on ubuntuforums.org where people can request help of the Forum Ambassadors. -sicofante: users should not "request help" from ambassadors. It should be made clear they're somewhat a link between users and devs. We will create a team of Forum Ambassadors that connects to the developers to facilitate communication. We will use ambassadors to collect ideas, bugs and feedback from users. This team would probably connect to developers via a mailing list, with possibly some irc contact.

This idea originated on the forums. This idea was originally by Aysiu but many people have contributed to this spec. The current forum discussion is here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=278375

Forum Ambassadors might become a team like : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=289810

Rationale

Currently there's little communication between the forum users and the developers. The forums can be a great resource for developers that are looking for bugs, testers, or improvement of useablity -- but not in a way that they have to spend too much time browsing the forums. The idea is to bring the forums to the developers with this team.

The proposed Forum Ambassadors Team will improve information flow between the forums and the developers. This information flow will be bi-directional.

It's not practical for the developers to spend much time monitoring the forums. The amount selected by the ambassadors team for the developers should be a lot easier to handle than the huge amount of posts on the forums. Instead of waiting for developers to come to the forums let's take a more active approach and create this team.

It also provides a sense of entitlement to the users at Ubuntu Forums. They will feel represented, involved, and perhaps be able to take a larger part in making Ubuntu better. True this is definetely good for improving the integration and communication of the forums with the rest of the community.

The users often find it hard to reach the developers, with notices like "the developers don't browser here" strung all over the place in bold font. They are told to "file a bug", post to the mailing list, and this may seem daunting in this radically different world. As well as making it easier for the developers to reach the users, the spec tries to make the users able to reach the developers.

Use cases

• Right after Feisty's release there's a big thread on the forums about the breakage of a certain important package. Paul, a Forum Ambassador, contacts the maintainer of this package to let him know about this.
• Karel, a forum user, creates a new thread with some nice workarounds for certain problems. Paul, a Forum Ambassador, discovers that a couple of these problems are unknown to the devs and encourages and assists forum users to report these problems as bugs, including a link to the forum thread in explanation.
• Joe, a forum user, posts with annoyance at how a certain package is not compiled with options to perform something he wants, for example ipod support for a music app. The ambassador informs Joe he will pass on his request by filing a bug to the right package, or gives him the appropriate links and guidance to file the bug himself. This is training up future possible FA's, or teaching people how to get their opinions heard.
• A month before (the next) UDS, Traci, a Forums Ambassador, creates a thread asking for suggestions regarding ideas for improved usability, new things that don't ring very true with the users. Traci summarizes the discussion, filters out trivia and senseless complaints, and forwards the good ideas and suggestions to the developers in the following way : first create specs or wishlist-bugs for these ideas, secondly send an e-mail to ubuntu-devel for discussion (and ubuntu-motu for universe packages)and thirdly some FA try to get sponsorship and attend the next UDS to discuss these specs. A developer sees these specs (or bug reports), and can act quicker with the information presented to them, without having to waste time browsing the forums. (big feature bugs should instead go to upstream bugtrackers)

Scope

• This spec is focused on creating a Forum Ambassadors team which will provide a bi-directional communication interface between the forum users and the Ubuntu developers.

* The only purpose of this project is to gather feedback and input from the users and convey it directly to the developers, and to convey the intentions/thoughts of the developers back to the users. The Ambassadors team's responsibilities will not extend beyond that.

• The focus of this team should *not* be to try to educate every new user, although the team would assist in communication between forums users and developers. This spec is *not* about creating a team to help new users. We have a team for that.
• The Forum Ambassadors will also *not* be responsible for resolving inter-user and user/staff grievances. We have a resolution centre for that (Also FC and CC in the future).
• This spec is *not* about improving the documentation flow between forums and wiki. We can use another team for this. Both teams can learn from eachother.
• This spec is *not* about creating documentation.
• Initially intended for ubuntuforums.org. In the future other Ubuntu forums can possibly learn from us or possibly even join us. For now expanding to other forums is out of scope.

Design

• define tasks of Forum Ambassadors, discuss evaluating requests and give examples of things a FA could do
  • - see use cases - Some people are comfortable collecting information. (Collector) - Some people are comfortable diseminating information. (Disseminators)

    - File bugs (Good bugs, not just follow either, is it a feature or a bug? They need to be able to contact people who are willing to contribute.) (see [:LoCoTeamsUDSMVSpecs/CommunityBugReporting:CommunityBugReporting]) - Forum Ambassadors should be active mainly in the Forum Ambassadors subforum. In this way most of what they do is transparent to the forum users. They could also submit interesting stuff to Ubuntu Weekly News in interesting cases. When we grow bigger we might report in a more official manner to the Forums Council.

• define criteria for Forum Ambassadors Members
  • - respect and follow CoC (Code of Conduct) - amount of time dedicating to it *entirely* up to yourself - if stepping down then stepping down gracefully - willingness to learn and enthusiasm - shown to be capable and respectful in interacting with community members on forums - having a sense of what is feasible and what isnt. Having a vague idea of how things work is also useful. - if time available then be willing to go to UDS if sponsored - Forum Ambassadors should have a rough idea about what happens on k/x/ed ubuntu-devel (pick the one you like) - ability to filter requests from users (support request (let staff move it), bug report, feature bug, spec, obvious idea,..)
• defining tasks of Forum Ambassadors leaders
  • - being a regular Forum Ambassador - making sure FA live up to the criteria - solving inter-FA-team problems if any - communicating with forum staff if needed
• define criteria of Forum Ambassadors leaders
  • - the same as for FA

    - respect and follow LCoC (LeadershipCodeofConduct) - (extra) community experience helps - extra criteria up to the forum admins - appointed by forum admins

• Goals to achieve
  • To encourage and assist forum users in bug reporting,writing specs and launchpad. Point them to docs and help them if that doesn't suffice. If there are no docs, ambassadors should help them along; and let someone of the docteam know the docs are missing.
  • Communicating ideas to developers (gists and zeitgeists (trends))

  • Two way communication. (Bidirectional)

  • Integration of software projects that start on the forums into the distribution. (Inviting people into the greater community.)
  • Involve active forum members who know what they are doing to help out with bugs (reporting,triaging). (Get the active members to join the project)
• When users should come to us regarding specs : in the one month timeslot before the next UDS
• Define types of requests (FA will have to (learn to) recognize which of these it is) :

  • - support request => report to forum staff. forum staff will move them somewhere else - small feature bugs such as "package X needs to be compiled with option Y") => report as wishlist/feature bug to package X. refer user to documentation. help reporting bug when needed. - big feature bugs against some package => should probably go upstream - new ideas possibly suitable for specs => refer to documentation about writing new specs. help when needed (for example suggest a gobby session with interested people) - obvious ideas => gently explain the user that this is an obvious idea and therefor not worth reporting to the developers (they are swimming in bug reports and email already) - prioritizing some spec (users might feel something is very important while developers might think it's less important) => A discussion thread with poll is probably the way to go here. - unclear what user wants => more information needed from user

• Define types of other relevant information :
  • - Communicate what users like in other distros

    - "I've stopped using Ubuntu because XXX is, or works better, in Some Other Distro" <-- high priority - Communicating ideas to developers (gists and zeitgeists (trends)) - what specs users feel are important - what general direction users feel the next release should emphasis on

Implementation

• This document is only a draft. The final implementation is up to the admins and Forum Ambassador Leaders (appointed by the admins).
• The FA will mostly use ubuntu-devel when communicating with developers. The FA can't flood ubuntu-devel. The FA will have to make sure the email they send is really really useful. In the beginning they will discuss with eachother before sending an email to ubuntu-devel. The FA will slowly learn how to communicate best with the devs.
• We have defined some criteria that have (at least) to be present in Forum Ambassadors and Forum Ambassador Leaders. The admins should appoint one or two volunteers to be Forum Ambassador Leaders. Forum users can (privately or publicly) volunteer themselves to become Forum Ambassador. Forum Ambassador Team Leaders can suggest new candidate FA members to the forum admins. The final decision for appointing new FA members is up to the forum admins.
• Create Launchpad team for Ambassadors
• Create special forum section dedicated to make it easy for forum users to contact Forum Ambassadors. Communication between forum users and FA should primarily happen in this forum section.
• The FA team should start small (about 5-7 depending on the amount of capable volunteers) and slowly increase in size.
• Create Document HOWTO be an ambassador
• create ambassador team leaders
• FA don't need specific tasks. forum moderators don't have specific tasks and this works out nicely. Let's try to the same dynamic approach for FA also.

• We need nice documentation : "How to file a good bug report". This ties in with this spec about documentation to report bugs : https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/community-bug-reporting Writing our own docs is out of the scope of this spec.

• Submit submittor to bug report.
• Forum Staff and Forum Ambassadors are two separate things. But it's possible for a forum user to be both. Some Forum Ambassadors might make good Forum Staff. Some Forum Staff might make good Forum Ambassadors.
• It's important that potential Forum ambassadors know that they don't have to be developers to talk on a developer level - it's not like the developers are unapproachable, nor that they need to be talked to in a weird language - they do understand day to day English. I suspect there are a lot of people who think "I cant do this, I'm not skilled enough to." If you have a reasonable knowledge of what is feasible and isn't, we need you!
• (potential) Forum Ambassadors don't have to be afraid to talk to developers. They will gradually learn what kind of information is of most interest to the developers. Forum Ambassadors should try to filter out obvious and useless ideas. Forum Ambassadors should try to keep the number of emails to ubuntu-devel low since developers are already drowning in bugreports and email.
• It's also important that we don't nagg too much about obvious stuff. This takes too much time of the developers. Explain why it's obvious in a gentle and decent way.(example obvious and useless idea : backporting a feisty kernel to dapper)
• We have to make sure we can post to ubuntu-devel, edubuntu-devel, kubuntu-devel and xubuntu-devel (the new team will ask Jono Bacon).
  • ubuntu_demon : AFAIK only ubuntu-devel is moderated currently by Jono Bacon.
• We should try to have at least one FA at every (Kubuntu/Community) council meeting and report there (briefly). (idea by Jonathan Ridell)
• Maybe FA should automatically be subscribed to new specs at the next UDS ?

• Priorities poll during the 1 month timeslot before UDS to help define the direction of the next Ubuntu Release. For example : [bling,multimedia,server hardware support, desktop hardware support,laptop hardware support,security&stability,easier/better package management, bleeding edge stuff]

Evaluation

• Forum Ambassadors and Ubuntu developers should know about each others existence and can find each other on launchpad
• Forum Ambassadors should know what's going on (devel mailinglists, developer forum section, FA forum section)
• posts in ubuntu-devel, kubuntu-devel,xubuntu-devel,edubuntu-devel, ubuntu-motu and the new FA forum section are readable for everyone
• report to Ubuntu Weekly and ubuntu-devel on an irregular basis (maybe regular later)

Unresolved issues

• wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumAmbassadors for full/old discussion.
• What do other distros do regarding ambassadors ?
• Need feedback from developers on what they would like to see in this spec. ubuntu_demon : I will post to my blog (goes to planet.ubuntu.com) / on ubuntu-devel about this spec to try whether we can get some useful input.

* request launchpad feature to somehow represent bugreporter and "user who experiences bug" ???

• ubuntu_demon : Sometimes the bug reporter is not the person who suffers from the bug but merely the person reporting it. Launchpad doesn't have a way of reflecting this. IMHO it would be nice if we could report bugs for others without looking like us suffering from it. ubuntu_demon : I will move this to unresolved issues for now. I might file a bug for this :).

  PriceChild: I don't think that this is in the spirit of bug reporting. Also, it would be a pain due to forums and Launchpad not being integrated. The initial reporter wouldn't have an account. ubuntu_demon : Launchpad and the Forums will become integrated. I hope that we will soon see a shared login. Right now when my girlfriend has a problem I have to report it and it seems to be my problem instead of hers. (if my girlfriend were a forum user it would be especially nice to link to her support request on the forums) ubuntu_demon : let's leave it unresolved for now.

• Whether to give credit for bug reports to users who discovered the bug or those who report it (namely the ambassadors).
  • -- we can solve this by reporting a bug to make it reflect both in launchpad.-You misunderstand. I wasn't proposing it as a a thing for discussion. We have a lot of comments on this, so let's delete the comments and leave the bullet, to save spaec and make it easier to read.
    • --- but do you agree we can solve it if malone reflects both the user affected and the FA who reported it ?

maniacmusician : As far as I'm concerned, this is still mostly an unresolved issue that could use furhter discussion LATER.

let's summarize/clean up the discussion then (but I don't have more time right now)

• -- We probably need to file a bug to malone with a feature request.
  • we would want to be able to submit bugs for others and make clear that it's not our bug. Let's put this to unresolved issues if it's not there already.

    - ManiacMusician : I see. I don't think that matters in our case. We will probably file bugs under the name "ubuntuform-ambassadors" or something like that, so obviously they won't belong to us. And i don't feel kindly about giving credit to people that don't want to do research and figure out how to submit a proper bug and then want credit for the submission

    • - PriceChild : I REALLY like the idea of one name for all bugs from the forums as That would really show what we can do.

      • - UbuntuDemon : would be nice to show "Forum Ambassador team member xyz has reported this bug for user zzzxxc"

        • - ManiacMusician : eh. It detracts emphasis from the team and may cause some people to try and compete.

          • -ubuntu_demon : IMHO it's better than not seeeing the username of the user with the bug at all. - ubuntu_demon : let's leave it unresolved for now.

Brain Dump

• sicofante: Tag threads from any subforum and create a virtual subforum that contains issues relevant to developers. This is the whole idea: The subforum would be created as a virtual subforum via the use of tags. It will be visible in the main forums page by creating a direct link to a tag search and by using the forumdisplay option for tags searches in [WWW] Zoints vBulletin add-on. Instead of having a dedicated "real" subforum, this approach has the following advantages:
  • - sicofante:No crossposting needed. The OP might want to keep the thread as it was originally intended (a help demand, a complaint, a request, whatever) and just tag it so the ambassadors can use it to show the issue to the devs.
    • ubuntu_demon : so the FA might have to go through a big thread to find the actual request. IMHO this is a disadvantage.
    - sicofante:The OP might not intend its post to be used by ambassadors but the mod still believe it would be useful, so the thread could go on "as is" and still serve the purpose of showing to the devs a particular point. - sicofante:Where the thread originally started will bring useful information to devs, mods and ambassadors. For instance, threads tagged from the beta testing forums are quite different from those coming from "absolute beginners". - sicofante:Ambassadors might "de-tag" some threads to prevent abuse. This might help the ambassadors getting a cleaner look at what they have to say to the devs. - ubuntu_demon : IMHO users should make the concious effort to go to the FA. This will make the amount of work a FA has to do manageable and it will mean that only people who actually want help with their spec/bugreport come to us. The FA is not for helping with support requests. - ubuntu_demon : forum staff can move threads to the FA forum section when they feel this is useful/necessary - sicofante: asking users for that effort is OK, but that will leave out issues that users simply complaint about in other forums. - ubuntu_demon : that's where polls come in. Also FA can start discussion threads in the FA forum or developer subforum to get valuable input.

    - PriceChild: The tags search doesnt' work like a normal forum, newer posts don't bump topics to the top. We'd have to try and keep it as clean as possible once the issue is dealt with. - I would prefer a separate forum with new discussion threads and simply a link to the original post because of this.

== Future work ==

• Expanding to other forums

Comments

Archived comments: [wiki:ForumAmbassadors/Talk Talk page]

• I think this is a great Idea. From a forums perspective at least the English one it will be really simple to allow this to be setup as a team with the option of users to request to join etc. I would like to see this implemented for sure. Ryan Troy
• I think its a great idea to really well thought out. if its implemented right will work out great. zenrox

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