[SLUG] Poster3, input requested

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi ppl

Thanks Bob for the threes thought, that seems to work well. Both you
and Al seem to prefer the sky picture, and ProntaPrint seems to think
there may be a problem with a block of black, so that's OK.

On the subject of the amount and size of text, there are two things
going on here. The first is we need something big and succinct enough
to draw people over from perhaps ten yards away. When they get closer,
they can then read the smaller print, so long (accepted) that it
doesn't require a magnifying glass. In order for it to be big and bold
and clean .. it's a poster not a magazine ad .. I think less text is
better, so I'm inclined to go with the 'threes' thought, especially
considering that the trifold titles will be visible just to the left
on the display.

The trifold 'summary' thought is good tho, Al. Bob, maybe underneath
our trifold titles we should have a sentence (two at most) that
summarises the content of the trifold in an action oriented way, eg.
for the artists one maybe "Escape the software industry's clutches and
go your own way with state of the art software that costs next to
nothing." Whatever, that was just off the top of my head.

Al, sorry, but I am locked onto the freedom thing as the fairy on top
of the tree. From that, everything flows. Linux may be robust, and if
so it's because we have the freedom to see and amend the code. It may
be free as in beer, and if so, that's because we have the freedom to
distribute it. There may be lots of applications to choose from, and
if so, that's because people have found a new way to work together
around the idea of viewing and amending code, which is a freedom
issue.

Freedom is also something that will appeal to pretty much everyone,
whereas 'free (as in beer) software' would put me off .. I'd be
thinking of shareware, which was pretty poor quality and wasn't, in
the end, free as in beer. I'd feel cheated if I'd taken a Fedora Core
4 disc thinking it contained robust software.

The other issues are disputable .. we all have our tales of Linux not
finding hardware or of applications crashing or failing in other ways.
Is Linux faster? Does it really allow the use of older machines over,
say, W98? Where's the evidence for those claims? I'm a Linux user and
advocate and I'm not sure on those points.

Also, as I've said before, I think someone who wants free as in beer
software basically wants something for nothing, and that's not what's
on offer. They will fall to the wayside as they struggle to implement
Linux. It's a little like vegetarianism, once you have 'not eating
animals' as a principle, you'll go through whatever pain is required.
Once you have 'freedom' as a principle, you're locked into Linux
forever, no matter what gets in your way. None of our other magnets is
stronger. This comes down to what we want from the show. I've a
feeling 'free as in beer' would have all the Open CDs taken on day
one, but no-one would actually convert to Linux nor would anyone join
SLUG. On the freedom issue, we might get one to jump through all the
hoops. Maybe we can test this next year and do it on other issues.

We may be guilty of wanting a poster that would attract us, rather
than something that would attract our library punter. I know, Al,
you're thinking of them, but I also know that I'm trying to think of
them and I'm not really getting them into my head, despite being one
myself. In other words, if this were a real advertising project we'd
have done our groundwork, our research. We'd have information from the
library about their visitors and we'd have a panel of five or ten real
users to judge our work. We haven't. Basically, this is an amateur
exercise based on what we think will work. There's no data to
arbitrate between our views, and there are insufficient commentators
on this list to have a vote. Equally it's only you, Al, that's arguing
against the freedom message. I think if others disagreed with the
message they'd say so and I'd have to rethink. I think at least some
people are following progress and find it's all acceptable so aren't
commenting, since "yep, seems ok" sounds so lame.

That kinda leaves me in the awkward position of saying "I disagree,
and I'm doing the poster, so freedom it is unless you want to take it
on". I don't like that, I'm not authoritarian and I'd prefer another
way, but given also that I haven't got infinite time to try
alternatives that don't seem to be getting us any closer to what
everyone wants, at some point we have to move on. In fact, I have my
own deadline of this Tuesday when I want the thing done and dusted.
Help me out if anyone thinks there's another way.

The bad thing about that is I do still want input, and by casting
input aside I run the risk of making people feel bad or feel that they
had wasted their time, and Al, it's always good to see you at meetings
so I don't want you to feel I'm ignoring what you're saying. The
reality is I'm really struggling to integrate what you're thinking,
and failing. I hope that feeling isn't too bad and won't stop you and
others from communicating their thoughts.

OK, a new poster is on its way, stand by :-)

J