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

Tue Oct 5 02:36:07 CEST 2010

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>
+
+