Moving on from the community manager position
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Hello all,
I'll be stepping down as the community manager from the Qt company at the end of the month.
It's been a lot of fun to work with you all over the years.I would like to take a moment to recollect some of the things that I have had the pleasure to do with you, the community, over my years here.
It's been a good run.
In the past four years we have gone a long way.When I came here, the systems were, well, pretty bad. Bad enough that I didn't even save screenshots :) So I started with writing ugly php fixes and trying to keep the place together.
However it was obvious that a major overhaul was needed. After looking at some options, the decision was made that the monolithic platform that we had back then needed to be broken up.- NodeBB was a nice up and coming forum platform with an active developer base who were friendly and answered questions quickly.
- Mediawiki was the obvious choise for the wiki.
- Docs got their own solution, as they are published in plain HTML anyway.
Those changes were necessary, the old system was just end-of-life. A forced migration is usually better than when the old systems can still work.
Overall the move went over smoothly, save for the normal anxiety and a couple of server issues when doing the migration. (and doing server maintenance from both the summer cottage on weekends and a ski slope during winter vacation, but that's par for the course).Somewhere around this time was the first time someone referred to me as a Troll. You have no idea how honoured I felt about this title.
( sidenote, in the beginning when Qt was developed by TrollTech, the people there were known as Trolls.)
To be called a Troll was something that I did not even dream about.Fro ongoing stuff there is of course the normal spam fighting going on both here and on the wiki. Lot's of small technical measures to keep the place clean. But the most important part is human.
I would like to tip my hat to the @moderators here, they do an amazing job, thank you!You people also keep the tone here polite and nice. That is something I value a lot. With people from all over the world communicating most of the time in their second or third language, keeping a polite tone is absolutely necessary.
There have been wiki weeks to clean up the wiki from old and outdated content. Of course single weeks do not fix the problem, but they do keep the situation under control. All wikis that have undergone multiple migrations and have lived for a decade have a problem with old content, the Qt wiki is no exception. The first layers of content are ok, but when you dig deeper there is a good chance of finding old content.
The Qt Champions initiative is something I am proud of. It was originally thought of as a continuation of the Ambassadors program that used to exist in Nokia times. It's a way to say thank you to the people who make the Qt community a better place for everyone.
I have been amazed every year on the activity and helpfulness of the Qt Champions. It's humbling to think that there are people so active in the community.I've also been running the Qt Contributors' Summits (QtCS) since 2014 (and just got home from the 2018 edition, which was as good as ever) These are wonderful events where people who contribute to Qt can come together and talk about what has been going on and where Qt is going in an informal environment.
The feeling has always been intimate and friendly, like old friends meeting.
The QtCS has been a fun event to manage every year.In 2016 we made a change to the QtCS format, and decided to join forces with other open source communities. The 2016 QtCon will be something I'll remember with warmth for a long time. Bringing together four different communities (Qt, KDE, VideoLAN and FSFE) under the same roof, working together with talented people from those communities to make everything happen.
It was amazing to see the results of long hard work, and get a glimpse into the other communities and they way they work.
At QtCon my appreciation for what KDE and FSFE do in the area of freedom and liberty grew a lot. Those are two communities worth following.After QtCon I got to go even bigger and create the 2017 Qt World Summit.
The amount of work that goes to create a massive event like that is a surprise, even when you expect it. And most of the work is about making the event look like it just happened without any effort. In reality it is half a year of managing every possible aspect of what is visible to the attendees.
And the feeling when the event comes together and works is better than anything :)
When you know you created the biggest Qt event ever, it's hard not to smile like an idiot all the time (once you are sure that all the pieces clicked into place). When you see that all the details are there as intended, and the team that worked to make it all happen is there too... it is just great.Time has really flown by.
Now I see that someone else needs to step in, take the baton and go with the community somewhere where I can't even imagine :)
And I need to go and do things that light my fire again.
Keep Qt, people!
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Qt's community managers have always been awesome! :)
Thanks for all your hard work, and good luck in whatever your journey!
-from the ex Qtopia Community Manager
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I didn't know that you @lorn-potter were still lurking here :)
I completely agree, the community managers that were here before me were all awesome! -
All the best for you new role. It was nice working.
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