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Linux and Main has been online for a relatively short period of time -- less than a month. The response has been gratifying beyond our wildest dreams.
Of course, we're but a vague preview of the site we hope to become. That isn't to say that we think we're of little interest now but instead to point out that we intend to grow, to become more content- and feature-rich, to provide more things of use to the desktop Linux user.
In our first few weeks, we have received lots of comments -- some offering praise, some providing (usually entirely valid) criticism -- but they've all been in private mail. A lot of what has been discussed deserves a broader audience. One of the underlying design philosophies in Linux and Main is community involvement, which in this case means welcoming the contributions of anyone and everyone who visits us. We have a formal letters to the editor section -- Other Voices -- and we encourage you to write to and for it. We offer the opportunity for readers to contribute Guest Essays, which allows those who want to write a column or put forth a point of view in an organized and perhaps lengthy form to do so. We greatly encourage contributions for that section, too. (In all cases, you retain all rights to your work -- all you're granting us is permission to put and keep the item on Linux and Main.)
Now we've added an additional and more direct method for you to become involved with Linux and Main: ymmv, our message board. It's designed to let you add to, extend upon, comment about, or criticize what you see here, and to discuss your comments and those of other readers. New content will be accompanied by links that go directly to the appropriate forum of ymmv, though you may also go in through the home page, which is especially useful if you want to post to The Sandbox, the forum for discussion of just about anything -- within reason.
We do require registration of those who wish to post. No, we are not seeking information for mailing lists or anything else. We do not and will not sell or give away the information you provide. Instead, it is our experience that people who can be identified tend to be a little more polite than those who post anonymously. We love Slashdot and very much appreciate the vital service which that site performs, but to try to emulate its posting policies would do neither it nor Linux and Main a service. Our jobs are very different -- which is probably why you will not see, as the result of the link above, a note to the effect that it's difficult to get into Slashdot because it's been "Linux and Main"ed -- and if we do our job as well as the Slashdot crowd does theirs, we'll consider ourselves very successful indeed.
Registration is a simple process. And even if you're not registered, you are free to read the contents of ymmv. If you find something that absolutely requires a response, you may register -- or login, if you're already registered -- from any page in ymmv and, as we add new content, from any page on the entire site.
You'll notice that ymmv is at the moment sparsely populated. That's because it's been online for only a day. Be bold! Jump in! Lead the way!
Have fun. Help others. Be nice. You're an essential part of the Linux community, but you're also an online representative of that community. Try to keep that in mind when posting, because others thinking of making the jump to Linux may be encouraged -- or discouraged -- by the Linux community's attitude. That isn't to say that you are not entitled to strong opinions. And we'll not drag out the old saw about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar, in that honey and vinegar both have other, better purposes and we do not know why you would be interested in flies unless you were equipped with a long, sticky tongue devoted to their capture. It's probably good to bear in mind that while hostility has its purpose, so does persuasion.
That's it. We hope to see you on ymmv. Maybe even commenting on this very editorial.