[Mageia-discuss] IRC community channels - need a ruling from the board

[Christopher Swift]

Ar Maw, 2010-10-05 am 01:29 +0100, ysgrifennodd Christopher Swift:
> Ar Llu, 2010-10-04 am 12:35 +0100, ysgrifennodd Romain d'Alverny:
> Let's see other projects:
> > 
> >  * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate#International has no
> > strict scheme (although it looks like a 2-letters ISO for language
> > primarily)
> 
> As you can see in the Internation list, the channel for the United
> Kingdom users of Fedora is #fedora-uk.  
> 
> >  * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/ChannelNaming has a strict one (2
> > letters ISO for country ONLY - no language-based channel)
> 
> Being a Point of Contact for an Ubuntu LoCo team I can tell you that
> Ubuntu does indeed have language groups as well as country groups.  For
> example #ubuntu-es isn't aimed at Spain but rather spanish speakers who
> use Ubuntu.  
> 
> It should also be noted that Ubuntu uses the ccTLD to set the name of
> the channel, so for example the channel for United Kingdom of Great
> Britain and Northern Ireland would indeed be #ubuntu-uk as it is.  The
> ccTLD for the UK is indeed .uk whereas Ukraine's ccTLD is .ua.
> 
> >  * http://irc.mozilla.org/ has no strict scheme
> 
> The Mozilla naming scheme for the channel of the Ukraine is #mozilla-ua.
> 
> >  * http://wiki.debian.org/IRC has no strict scheme
> 
> #debian-uk is also the Debian channel for the United Kingdom, it even
> says in the brackets that it is not the channel for the Ukraine.
> 
> >  * others?
> 
> Another project which uses -uk for the channel naming for the group of
> users in the United Kingdom is the Gentoo project using #gentoo-uk for
> the name of the channel.
> 
> > What matters more anyway is the index we provide to route people to
> > their preferred channel.
> > 
> > 
> > So, I would suggest this for #mageia-{suffix}:
> >  0. 2-letters ISO code for _language_ (as we do today, already);
> >  1. 2-letters code _may_ be used for location/country coding;
> >  2. in case of conflict between rules 0 and 1, ask IRC management team
> > - and rule 0 is most likely to  apply anyway;
> >  3. so full location/country name is encouraged for location coding;
> > 
> > In this case, #mageia-uk would go for Ukrainian language and
> > #mageia-unitedkingdom for the United Kingdom; given the context, both
> > would encouraged to put a welcome message on their channel in the
> > coming days to help people re-route themselves in case needed.
> 
> Despite every other project that you have listed using -ua for Ukraine
> and -uk for the United Kingdom as those are their respective ccTLDs you
> wish to break this uniformity?  By extending the shortened name of -uk
> to -unitedkingdom you are making it less likely for people to find the
> channel.  -uk as a suffix is an already declared identifier for the UK
> in both domain names and open source IRC projects.
> 
> > That would also mean, for instance, that #mageia-br would go for
> > Breton - Celtic language, not for Brasil that would need
> > #mageia-brasil instead.
> 
> Actually for Breton is more likely that they would be using #mageia-bzh
> as that is their proposed ccTLD.  The Brazilians are free to choose to
> use either -br, -brazil or -brasil in this instance.
> 
> > That drives me to pre-announce that we will have some sort of a "IRC
> > Council" of admins/moderators/mediators of IRC channels, to
> > collaborate with Forum and Mailing-lists peers to manage
> > technical/conflict/discussion topics/issues and escalates to the
> > community council in case of need (more on the whole organisation
> > soon).
> > 
> 
> Doesn't it make more sense to comply with the already existing standards
> of the Ubuntu and Fedora projects in regards to naming IRC channels?
> And as far as naming the channel #mageia-gb for the UK, many Irish would
> simply feel offended in not recognising their official status in the
> United Kingdom,  as a Welshman if you were to name the -UK channel
> -England or -Eng for short I would not be best pleased.
> 
> Cofion Gorau,
> Christopher Swift

Sorry but I forgot to add that the UK code is reserved for the United
Kingdom in the ISO 3166-1 standard whereas the Ukraine is UA.  You can
verify this at
http://www.iso.org/iso/support/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#UK


Cofion Gorau,
Christopher Swift
-- 
Christopher Swift <christopher.swift at linux.com>