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Some news from LWN

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Re: Some news from LWN

#141

Post by mwcremer »

kentonv wrote: post #134
mherdeg wrote: post #52

There is no "Subscribe" link anywhere in the text of this article or on the web page that hosts it ( http://lwn.net/Articles/696017/ ). I was able to find the link from the front page, but it's kind of hidden -- https://lwn.net/subscribe/Info which says "Get started! The first step is to log into LWN. If you do not yet have an account, please create one now; otherwise, please log in to continue:". Which seems like a…

Another problem is that when you subscribe, you choose a number of months for your subscription to last. The maximum you can choose in 24. I just now discovered that my subscription had lapsed. If I had the option to subscribe permanently, I would choose to do so. I assume this is some sort of principled stand designed to avoid skimming money from people who no longer use their subscriptions but are too lazy to cance…

An annuity may be preferable to lump sum. And I receive several courteous reminders to renew before my subscription runs out.

Re: Some news from LWN

#142

Post by JoshTriplett »

umbs wrote: post #133
Analemma_ wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LWN articles are paywalled, but subscribers can generate public "subscriber links", which are the ones that get shared to HN. This is such a double-edged sword: it's great for visibility, but as you've shown, it means people can read your content for a long time and never even know that subscriptions are available. That trend only gets stronger as more people go through aggregators like HN/Reddit. Hopefully "pledge d…

"LWN articles are paywalled" It is paywalled for a short period (2 weeks??). After that, everyone can read their articles for free.

One week, and only for a subset of articles; some articles are available to everyone immediately.

Re: Some news from LWN

#143

Post by JoshTriplett »

rleigh wrote: post #74
ckastner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, LWN is more than just about Linux kernel development. I find it a useful aggregator of information of note from the F/OSS world. For example, as of right now, most of the articles on the front page aren't about kernel development: distro security updates, LibreOffice, Firefox, GnuPG, ...

This is very true, but I am increasingly wanting something a bit less Linux-centric for all the major categories it covers, which also includes the BSDs and other platforms. There's also an increasingly unhealthy echo chamber regarding "the desktop" if you read the comments, which largely mirrors subscribers' corporate/project affiliations, and that's one of the reasons I no longer subscribe or read it too frequently…

To me, LWN only seems Linux-centric to the extent that FOSS itself seems Linux-centric. I've seen articles on LWN about major new developments in the BSD world (for instance, https://lwn.net/Articles/651700/ ), as well as notable developments about FOSS for Windows or OSX.

Re: Some news from LWN

#144

Post by JoshTriplett »

omginternets wrote: post #99
CaptSpify wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liken CSS and JS to salt: putting a little on makes things better. But pouring a lot on quickly makes things worse. Scarcity is the key

"CSS is the spice of HTML"

"A little bit helps, don't use too much, and don't use flavors that don't mix"?

Re: Some news from LWN

#145

Post by ajdlinux »

elihu wrote: post #137
grabcocque wrote: post #3

I stopped subscribing. The thing is, the Glory Days when kernel development was a scary, exciting wild west are lone gone. By necessity, the Linux kernel is now a part of the tech firmament and development is necessarily not as sexy as it used to be. So it's gonna be tough to get people to pay to read about it.

I think kernel development is a lot slower and more incremental than it used to be, which is probably a good thing. However, back in the "wild west" days we had some very good books that explained in detail how the kernel works. Now, if someone wants to get started in kernel development, I wouldn't even know what book to recommend; all the good ones I know of haven't been updated in a decade. I think this is perhaps…

As someone who's only come into the kernel very recently, I have found the lack of up-to-date documentation to be quite frustrating. I'm very glad to see Jon Corbet step up to be the kernel documentation maintainer and make some concrete steps to improve the usability of our docs, but it's annoying to see few new books or similarly consolidated resources for new kernel developers. The main reason I'm surviving in the kernel is that I'm employed on a team with many experienced kernel developers - I don't think I would have gotten into the kernel as a volunteer.

I think in the last few years many open source communities have become a lot better than the kernel in terms of having good starting points for beginners. In the last 5 years I think many projects have started to focus on developing and improving community process, which is good.

Re: Some news from LWN

#146

Post by wtbob »

akx wrote: post #126
wtbob wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I must say that this website comes across as very unprofessional due to the total lack of any design elements which would make it more easy to consume the content (spacing, choice of font). Say what? On the contrary, I think that it's splendidly simple to read LWN, because there's no distraction. It's a good, clean site; it respects the styling I instruct my browser to apply to it; it displays just fine in links, l…

Oh, I'll bite. It took me 15 minutes and 44 lines of CSS to make it look significantly more 2010s (and dare I say it, more readable): http://i.imgur.com/LAhwht5.png

I prefer serif fonts, but that looks nice enough.

Re: Some news from LWN

#147

Post by mook »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #91

I bet LWN could run entirely off some large subscriptions from companies like Google, which employees hundreds of Linux kernel developers. LWN is legitimate business information for many people and their employers. The model could be similar to the legendary newsletters of yore, like "Shannon Knows DEC". Maybe they don't want to refocus away from the public, but it could work.

LWN does actually have corporate subscriptions. I currently work for one that just requires me to log in to LWN from the company IP range once a month. I'd guess, though, that is not quite enough to run the site.

Re: Some news from LWN

#148

Post by cbsmith »

filereaper wrote: post #71

Most people here are commenting about the look and feel of LWN, I really don't have any complaints about the UI/UX so far, I don't expect to read LWN on my mobile phone. I think the main reason of the drop in readership is firstly kernel development is very involved and detailed, LWN mostly reflects the kernel mailing list and associated events and tech talks. I guess what I find most difficult as an outsider of the…

LWN covers a lot in userspace as well. Kernel is only one section (though it occasionally expands in to other sections).

Re: Some news from LWN

#149

Post by cbsmith »

kentonv wrote: post #134
mherdeg wrote: post #52

There is no "Subscribe" link anywhere in the text of this article or on the web page that hosts it ( http://lwn.net/Articles/696017/ ). I was able to find the link from the front page, but it's kind of hidden -- https://lwn.net/subscribe/Info which says "Get started! The first step is to log into LWN. If you do not yet have an account, please create one now; otherwise, please log in to continue:". Which seems like a…

Another problem is that when you subscribe, you choose a number of months for your subscription to last. The maximum you can choose in 24. I just now discovered that my subscription had lapsed. If I had the option to subscribe permanently, I would choose to do so. I assume this is some sort of principled stand designed to avoid skimming money from people who no longer use their subscriptions but are too lazy to cance…

Honestly, I appreciate that they do the expiration. I learn soon enough when I check the articles.

Re: Some news from LWN

#150

Post by brianmurphy »

pluma wrote: post #83
lukeschlather wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't emphasize the metadata over the content - they are equal peers. Most techniques for making metadata less emphasized make the metadata objectively less readable. I like having the metadata there. I like being able to read it. I have no trouble reading the text (because it's a decent size and the layout handles zooming without issue.)

It puts the metadata first with no visual distinction from the content itself. The distance between paragraphs in the comment and between the metadata and the comment is identical. Also, the title of the article is repeated throughout and drastically emphasised (considering nothing else is that visually distinct and it even has a solid background color).

The typical LWN reader is a heavy mailing list consumer. Emails have subject lines so having subject lines for comments is very familiar. Many people take the default subject heading because they are making an on-topic comment. I think outsiders aren't used to seeing so many on-topic comments so it throws them off.

Using a line break between meta data and content is also a familiar paradigm. Spend 20 years reading your email with mutt or mailx and you'll catch on. ;)

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