I would like to ask that the Council discuss the current state and future of the GWN at their next meeting.
1. Reliability. The GWN claims to be a weekly publication, yet it frequently fails to publish without prior warning. There was no edition this week, and Patrick Lauer says that it is "unknown" whether there will be an edition next week as Ulrich Plate is AWOL. 2. Permissions. Although it could be considered flattering that the GWN should choose a developer's blog as inspiration for an article, they should ensure that they have the developer / author's permission before quoting them (see previous complaints by brix, ciaranm and others). I also believe that when posting an article or interview, a copy should be sent to the relevant people to ensure that they are ok with what is being posted (my dev of the week interview, for example, was rather screwed up and misrepresentative). When someone contacts GWN to have something corrected, it would be appreciated were the GWN staff to at least deign to acknowledge receipt, even if for some reason they choose not to honour the corrections or post a retraction (although refusing to publish corrections is extremely insulting to those wronged). 3. Misinformation, misquotations and outright fabrications. Sure, there's freedom of the press, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse for deliberately making up quotes and printing intentional misinformation. 4. Credit. Care should be taken to ensure that crrect credit is given. From a PR perspective, Gentoo could benefit greatly by better utilisation of the GWN. I believe that as it stands, however, the GWN is discouraging people from contributing and damaging Gentoo's credibility. Another thing that concerns me is the way the articles are written. It is blatanly obvious that the GWN writers are not native English speakers as both the grammar and the flow of the articles is far from attractive. Having read through the archives, I notice that there was once a time when the GWN was a great publication, and I would like to think that it could become great yet again; in its current state, though, it is doing more harm than good. Lack of content and poorly written or incorrect articles are often justified by the GWN team on grounds of overwork and insufficient manpower. When I asked why they were not recruiting, I was informed that no-one has any interest in contributing. Upon speaking with others, however, I find that this is not the case -- people are interested, but fear (and rightly so) that their work will be edited in such a way that it is no longer something with which they want to be associated. Another complaint is that the GWN rejects any writing style which has any degree of character or levity. Any attempt at dececnt writing (the kind that would make it into publication in English newspapers or magazines, for example), is met with the claim that "the GWN is not a humorous publication". I would like to see discussion about the way the GWN is (mis)representing Gentoo, how we can better actualise its full potential and what can be done to address the concerns listed above. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, Christel -- conventionally stuck in the 1920s.
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