Arch Ambassadors

georgia_tech_swagger · 2009-05-13 08:36:46

So ... one of my fellow LUG members is a Fedora Ambassador. He goes around talking about Fedora to LUGs and such.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for ArchLinux to have ambassadors? Basically a volunteer list of people who are involved in Arch and know all about it, who are willing to:
- Speak to LUGs (LUGs outside of major metros are always desperate for speakers)
- Man booths at area conferences
- Be interviewed on podcasts
- Other such community related activities

While I know Arch does go out of it's way to engage in self promotion, it seems like some sort of infrastructure in place for people who are actively trying to find out about and engage Arch would be of great use and highly beneficial.

Last edited by georgia_tech_swagger (2009-05-13 08:37:31)

Themaister · 2009-05-13 09:25:09

It would almost feel as if Arch is a religion ... Oh wait

ninian · 2009-05-13 09:32:22

@georgia_tech_swagger:

Interesting idea and I'd also add: someone to whom editors of magzines etc can turn to for informed comment or articles about Arch. (I recently got a favourable response from an editor about an idea for an article on truly rolling distros, namely Arch and Sidux.)

thisperishedmin · 2009-05-13 12:27:32

I'm not sure that a "community reachout" necessarily would be beneficial...fedora and ubuntu are one story - but to put arch on someone who hasnt used linux before (assuming you wont be maintaining and configuring the system for them) isnt exactly a realistic goal in my honest and humble opinion. In that sense, I'm not sure community advertisements can be carried out the same way they would be for, say, Fedora. On that note, I think targeting existing Linux community members may be successful to an extent - despite the fact that many end up strong devotees to a certain brand for a certain period of time until given reason to do otherwise.

I think the real benefit of an "Arch Ambassador" of sorts would come from the idea above...an official informed person(s) who would handle interviews, some putting suggestions into websites/magazines when appropriate, etc. That said - we'd need a group of very informed users who have the capacity in knowledge and perhaps more challengingly - time.

So the real question becomes - who is able to do something like this confidently - and what other ideas do we have for how they could be used effectively?

Ghost1227 · 2009-05-13 12:42:17

Always willing to help...

Dusty · 2009-05-13 13:22:19

I've always considered this my informal role anyway, because I don't actually do anything else. At all. Ever.

Dusty

scio · 2009-05-13 13:28:00

I preach it to all my co workers and classmates, but I guess I could show up at a local LUG. I'm by no means an expert, but that may actually help :-P

Mr.Elendig · 2009-05-13 13:46:03

The Wiki(tm) wrote:

Q) Arch needs more press (i.e. advertisement)
A) Arch gets plenty of press as it is. The goal of Arch Linux is not to be large. The goal is to provide an elegant, minimalist and bleeding edge distribution focused on simplicity and code-correctness. Growth occurs naturally amongst the target user base. Trying to force growth will just cause problems.
Similarly, the development model does not restrict natural growth. More users might mean more devs to work on Arch Linux. This may cause some organizational issues at the "top", but those will be dealt with when they arrive.

^ I agree with that one. If some LUG comes asking if anyone can do a talk, sure I'll do it, but I won't go out and preach about it.

Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2009-05-13 13:47:45)

georgia_tech_swagger · 2009-05-13 15:19:10

Mr.Elendig wrote:

^ I agree with that one. If some LUG comes asking if anyone can do a talk, sure I'll do it, but I won't go out and preach about it.

How do they find you? That's the problem I'm trying to solve here. A previous poster also mentioned that people who are new to Linux aren't our target audience ... well ... again ... this isn't actively seeking ... this is providing a resource to those are already wanting to know more about Arch.

thisperishedmin · 2009-05-13 15:40:39

I agree...there is a fine line. I wish I heard about Arch far sooner than I did. It is what I was looking for without knowing it. I think theres users to be informed about Arch who may be looking for it without knowing it...but yet Arch should not try to "captivate" users who may be looking for more of a Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.

Obviously - its not a HUGE problem as we've all found ourselves here...but...one wonders if a solution is still necessasry... if any of this made any sense? haha

Mr.Elendig · 2009-05-13 16:19:00

georgia_tech_swagger wrote:

Mr.Elendig wrote:
^ I agree with that one. If some LUG comes asking if anyone can do a talk, sure I'll do it, but I won't go out and preach about it.
How do they find you? That's the problem I'm trying to solve here. A previous poster also mentioned that people who are new to Linux aren't our target audience ... well ... again ... this isn't actively seeking ... this is providing a resource to those are already wanting to know more about Arch.

Actually, not too long ago, there was a dude who posted an invitation to come and make a talk here on the forum.

rson451 · 2009-05-13 16:48:52

thisperishedmin wrote:

...its not a HUGE problem as we've all found ourselves here

I think this sums it up. Unless it's done precisely the right way, actively promoting (or to quote someone else up there, preaching) this distro is probably going to be considered soapboxing or fanboyism and rightly dismissed by anyone who is really in the target audience. IMO this distro NEEDS to be found -- because the users that seek out what they want and do things for themselves are the type of users that this distro targets.

Note that I do realize there is a difference in preaching a distro and making passing comments about a distro. I'm talking about the prior.

peets · 2009-05-14 03:27:25

Passing comments are vile. As I write this post on my MacBook Pro core 2 duo I can't help but remember how I found Arch: I wanted to install linux on my new computer, and Distrowatch & Google led me here. I think those tools do a good job and don't need any humans to assist them.

P.S. I don't have a Mac. Ew.

scio · 2009-05-14 15:03:51

Well I guess some people over reacted to my use of the word "preaching". I was using the definition:

answers.com wrote:

To advocate, especially to urge acceptance of or compliance with: preached tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

I simply was saying that when others are complaining that their Ubuntu kernel is outdated, or that their laptop takes too long to start up I tell them about Arch.

crouse · 2009-05-15 04:03:05

rson451 wrote:

IMO this distro NEEDS to be found -- because the users that seek out what they want and do things for themselves are the type of users that this distro targets.

+1

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I don't mind nudging people in the right direction once in awhile, but I always cringe when I see people wanting to promote Arch to newbies.
Experienced people will find Arch eventually, if Arch is the type of distro they are seeking.

Aprz · 2009-05-15 05:17:55

There are a lot of folks who's first Linux distro was Archlinux including myself. I don't think it should just be found by experienced users. Why have them waste their time searching through ridiculous distros that put Linux to shame (this is disputable and not fact)? I know a lot of folks who never even get as far as Arch just because their view of Linux is that it is just like Windows. Where is the power? What is so different? Most noobs think that the only difference between Windows vs Linux is: Linux doesn't have malicious software (which is false), Unix is the directory tree (lol! Seriourly I don't know why a lot of people think this)/the directory tree is different, and that Linux can't execute Windows executable natively. Open source in my opinion is about progression and a lot of users who start off with distributions such as Ubuntu don't progress. It's not even a step in the right direction; more like facing the right direction at most.

To be honest though, it's not even the distribution that points you in the right direction completely (although Arch certainly had me facing more of the right way than most Ubuntu and other distro users). The first three months or so that I used Archlinux, I just got it good enough to where it worked and I could do general purpose things. If you're not going to go beyond and actually learn how to use your operating system in meaningful ways then you're only wasting time. Lets face it, computers are one of the most powerful tools today and if you don't know how to use your tools then you're not going to get as far as you could even though you don't plan to be some engineer or something.

I think having someone help point beginners in the right direction is better than hoping that beginners will go in the right direction. Just a nudge in the right direction isn't going to cut it. It's like protesters. They aren't going to just sit and hope that whatever company or government is going to do what they want, they have to go outside, picket, and convince other people that they are right (as in whatever they want is progress and anything else is just less than that).

Last edited by Aprz (2009-05-15 05:26:25)

madalu · 2009-06-04 01:01:08

Thanks for all the wise posts here. My feeling is that the people who find Arch Linux are those who ready to find it. They are discerning computer users who want an elegant, flexible, simple, fast, cutting-edge distro. I think Arch users are such a happy lot because the distro usually finds them *when* they are ready for it -- at least that's the serendipity that I felt when I found Arch.

Trying to foist Arch upon people who are not interested in it or ready for it is likely only to provoke anti-Linux sentiment.

For instance, I'm not into tinkering with cars --- and I wouldn't want someone to come along and insinuate that I am somehow stupid or deficient for my lack of interest in car repair. I'm guessing that active Arch proselytizing would come across the same way. Not everyone likes to mess around under the hood of their operating systems.

Last edited by madalu (2009-06-04 01:04:45)

jelly · 2009-06-04 08:49:56

Well the main thing is that the new ubuntu users are somethimes not willing to learn all the CLI stuff ( ubuntu rant ) , i am fine with that. But arch just takes more time to understand than an installation of Fedora/ Ubuntu / SuSe . I would advocate the increase of fine wiki's , guide's like you have for ubuntu , ofcourse advocating for Arch is great but the group that wants to use linux is small then use arch is maybe even smaller ( we aren't ubuntu).

If we could improve our appearance on the internet with for example the reviews that you can read in the arch newsletter

[offtopic]
But if you start advocating for Arch , start converting all those gentoo ppl.
[/offtopic]

hatten · 2009-06-04 14:46:17

I don't think we should have an "official" guy who runs around and preaches, but what the hell, holding an informative speech at a LUG talking about the pro's and con's of arch cannot hurt. The goal isn't really to make everybody use arch, because everyone isn't suited for arch, but if i had not found a thread at UF where they talked about what was good and bad with arch i would never have googled for it.
I'll certainly talk about arch in the local LUG some day!

Peasantoid · 2009-06-04 20:55:29

Preaching is not a good idea... Educating, on the other hand, would be worth our while — might even make us some Linux converts.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-13 08:36:46

Arch Ambassadors

#2 2009-05-13 09:25:09

Re: Arch Ambassadors

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