[NEWS] February GMN

KillerX · Developer Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 7 Location: India

This forums thread is for discussion of the February issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter. We hope you enjoyed reading it!

If you liked a certain article or felt that the GMN was published with something that we could do without, let us know. You can also put your comments and suggestions on how you think the next GMN should be.

There's also a poll on whether the new graphical stats are any good

Cheers,
Anant

kalos · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:37 pm Post subject:

The graphical statistics are nice as they do organise the information in a readily observable manner. However, I think that the pie charts could use a little more contrast in the colour scheme. I understand that the scheme strictly follows that of the Gentoo site, and the GMN, but I believe that having a few stark colour contrasts might make the graphs easier to read. In either regard, the graphics are a nice, yet subtle, addition to the newsletter.

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rgk · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:48 pm Post subject:

I am glad to see that the GMN is actually manageable to release on on time.

The new graphical stats are awesome too

thanks for a great GMN
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Icer · Guru Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 344 Location: @home

++

Looks gr8t! Keep up the good work.

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arnvidr · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:49 am Post subject:

I haven't received this....? I got the last issue, has something changed?

Reading it at www.gentoo.org, it looks good though!

Fixed the link, the forums get greedy with punctuation around URLs. -- desultory

edit: Got the e-mail now
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Eckos · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:21 am Post subject:

Love the issue. Keep up the good work. And don't take away the chart graphs or I'll do something *shakes fist* j/k. :lol:

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V-Li · Developer Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 257

_ph · l33t Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 926 Location: Poland

Graphical stats about arches are really useful. It's just easier to compare visually than raw numbers. Pie charts - well, unless they would be category-divided, are not interesting for me.

gentoo-dev · n00b Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 30

Graphs look nice, but do not deliver as nice as plain text info. I liked the lists (make'em <ul> or <ol>) better than the table.
We used to have links to bugs.gentoo.org that gave the list of bugs, could we have them back please?

Nice to see the GMN published on time. Well done!

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:26 am Post subject:

Thargor · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:36 am Post subject:

Thanks to everyone who contributed in this GMN! Keep up the great work!

PS: I really like the graphics too

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steveL · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:02 am Post subject:

Looks great, well done :-)

One thing I'd love to see is a "Top 10 breakages" as voted on by forum users; for example, expat would have been in the chart for quite a while. That'd be a really useful resource for people about to do a major upgrade (especially if each linked to a forum how-to on getting round it.)

We could easily tie scripts into it as well, which would be an effective way for us to keep our systems stable without requiring dev time (apart from the initial setup of the voting and an RSS feed.)
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V-Li · Developer Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 257

This would maybe better qualify in a sticky forums thread...but I consider the GMN not the right source for it. Go on and create it.

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kamil1 · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

While the piecharts sure look fancy, they are too wide. As a result, the page with text is unreasonably stretched horizontally, making it uncomfortable to read.

Do you think you could make the charts a little narrower next time around?

equaeghe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 145

Hi all,

Before I spotted this thread (my mistake), I sent a feedback e-mail to the GMN-editors.
I'm more-or-less reproducing this e-mail below.
The gist is that I argue against the graphical charts (at least for the data they are used for now):
they may look nice, but they are not effective in conveying content.

Even though they might look nice, pie-charts almost never are very efficient
conveying information; 3D-pie charts are even worse, as distortion is introduced
theat has absolutely no added information content. Usually, the information put
in pie-charts is much better presented in a table where a percentage is added.
So what I am suggesting is that the pie-charts (sorry) are removed, but that a
percentage column is added to the corresponding table.

The same remark holds for the bar-chart, but there a stable% per arch could be
added to the table.

Because the editors write

nixnut

steveL · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:22 pm Post subject:

Revoltz · n00b Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Brasil

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks great, well done :-)

>>>>>>>>>

101% Gentoo

Princess Nell · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 131

I agree with kamil1. Text formatting is the browser's job, but the fancy imagery just messes it up.

I always find it strange to see people use full-screen browser windows anyway (are they used
to low-res screens, maybe?), it's a waste of screen real estate, especially if one needs to keep
an eye or two on other things. Can't stand sites that effectively force full-screen.

Other than that, it's great to see the newsletter back.

i92guboj · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject:

Nice job in general.

I can understand why some people complain about the contrast on the graphs, though. Site layout is important, but presenting the info in a way that is legible for everyone is the first thing. Nice things are ok, but it is far more important to communicate the contents in a way that most persons can read easily without having to capture the hex code for the colors

But in general I think that it's not bad at all, much less for a second GMN.
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Think4UrS11 · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:25 pm Post subject:

kalos · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject:

I think more important than the individual recommendations here is that people are reading the GMN and that it is a community issue. All of our recommendations regarding the pie charts and graphics rely on the prerequisite of having a community newsletter in the first place. The suggestions just affirm that people want to better the Gentoo world.

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Kobboi · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:11 am Post subject: GMN graphs

What was used to generate the nice graphs in the GMN?

mark_alec · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:36 am Post subject: Re: GMN graphs

safekali · n00b Joined: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Portugal

I'm just loving the overall layout of the GMN, the stats are wonderful, and so are the color theme they choose which is of course Gentoo's colors .
The information is well synthesized and structured, is easy readable and we don't get tired of reading.
So the for me the job is well done so far, lets just pray they keep on good vibes to do it right
month after month.

Best Regards

Safekali