Handover of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter

Hello,

I was encouraged by the Ubuntu Community Council to share the status of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, and unfortunately it is an area of contribution that I have stepped back on. Once Elizabeth K. Joseph left after Issue 500, it was left to myself, Chris Guiver, and others. We made things work for a few weeks, but over time, I couldn’t manage to spend time every week managing things, and I felt bad for the little amount of contributors we had being overstretched. So things slipped, and issues haven’t been published for months. To be completely honest, I feel burned out, and I would like to spend time working on other things.

The Community Council has encouraged me to hand over things gracefully and without things being in a state of uncertainty; not doing so is a CoC violation, and I deeply apologize for anyone who has wanted to contribute but has been blocked because of this. But I think it’s time for me to pass the torch onto someone else who has the time, motivation, and dedication to spend working on UWN consistently.

I will am willing to train anyone on the procedures, editing policies, etc. but in general I think UWN needs a new vision and goalset, so that it’s easier and more fun to contribute. I don’t know what it would be, and like I said before, I no longer have the time or motivation to pursue that or participate in those discussions. But if any potential contributors would like to come forward and present ideas that they’re willing to help implement, by all means.

Thanks for the understanding, and I hope to see UWN in better hands.

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Thank you for all the time you spent on UWN!

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Simon,

In the other thread - Call for Contributors to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Ubuntu Community Hub - I made a lengthy comment/reply to your initial post and included replies to what others had said. No-one actually replied to me. Is anyone really interested in the continuation of UWN?

I would love to take over the leadership of UWN from you but I don’t see how anyone can drum up sufficient help and participation to take UWN forward and keep it going for the foreseeable future. I won’t repeat any of the points that I originally made but UWN needs participants that can commit consistently week after week rather than on an occasional basis which is what happened towards the end of last summer/autumn.

There were plenty that offered to help but more help than was offered was what actually was required to produce a weekly newsletter on a regular basis. I see that the Community Council are now involved in a revival of UWN. I wish them luck.

Should anyone want any help or advice on continuing the newsletter then I’m offering my help but not necessarily my long term participation.

My email address for any such correspondence is paulw2u@ubuntu.com.

Of course, may be UWN should now be “put to bed” as there are so many other sources of Ubuntu related news on offer and many other apps/applications available to download that news.

Paul White
[PaulW2U]

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I looked for your lengthy reply and didn’t see it offhand. Maybe that’s why no one responded? Damn, found it after posting :roll_eyes:
For those interested: Call for Contributors to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - #36 by paulw2u - Ubuntu Community Hub

Just as an aside, I volunteered some time on the IRC channel for the newsletter, after the initial request. No one responded - Not good for motivation.

But, I don’t see why official Ubuntu News shouldn’t be covered in it - If one wants generic news, there are a plethora of blogs for that. Seems to be a problem of focus and probably readers - maybe because of the former?

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Agreed, communication between the team and new volunteers has not always been as good as it could have been. There’s an email address on UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Join - Ubuntu Wiki for new contributors to use but I don’t know whether that email address is still monitored or not.

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Sorry Stephen. I don’t recall seeing the offer (in irc), so if I was in the room again apologies. Some of the prior post (last nov) hurt a little, so I withdrew & shutdown my tablet usually sitting in #ubuntu-news [irc] so may have missed it b/c of that, or I misunderstood/left it for Simon - I don’t know. Again I apologize.

@paulw2u Paul if you take it over - I’m in too.

As for emails - I have no idea where they went. All my summary/review emails were cc’d there, but possibly not all emails to summary-writers for purpose of ‘touching-base’ or ‘update-why-no-publish-but-thanks’ (after work was done…; mostly sent as thanks in hopes of keeping them active/motivated)

[[ The last two done (521, 522) were all me; some scripts (excluding askubuntu I never did for some reason), without review (Simon did that), almost no summaries … I never did ‘publish’ - Simon always did it; Jose had offered to show me twiice so my fault (I think I feared that if I published, I’d be doing it all on my own) ]]

I had planned to write in this thread anyway - but not till late this week, so thanks Paul - I’m pleased for a response.

Paul - for this I apologize most heartily . I was most pleased by your posts last Nov; very very pleased. Some things back then hurt me (not all are in the thread) so I’d made the decision to step back for two weeks/issues before returning - alas no further issues went out. I’m not a people-person, didn’t want to step-forward (mostly for fear of being alone).

If you take it over - I’m in. If you want a co-lead; I’m in too if you want, alas I can’t help with the concerns/issues you raised though. Chris g.

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Oh no worries (for no response, I’m a big boy :wink:). Truly sorry to hear about the hurtful responses sent your way. There is no place for that on a project like this - Especially when one is volunteering their free time!!

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I would be willing to assist with UWN as well. I have been around GNU/Linux for quite a few years, going back to the early days of Slackware.

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Thanks a lot Simon!

We have been discussing a little to make it easier to get a weekly report of what’s going on with the Ubuntu community by taking advantage of the features of this discourse site.

For the people who are interested in contributing with a new weekly newsletter, lets continue using the original post to make proposals: https://community.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-contributors-to-the-ubuntu-weekly-newsletter/1539

It would be lovely to experiment with new tools and new formats. This is a community initiative, so nobody has to wait for any kind of approval. I encourage you to try writing a sample newsletter, drafting up a process, and putting it out there to get some feedback and (hopefully) contributors.

Here’s the wiki page I always followed: UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/EditingPolicies - Ubuntu Wiki