[Linux-aus] Additional Linux User Group

[Russell Coker]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2011, David Joshua Geary <bianca.uranus at gmail.com> wrote:
> Request addition of Australian Associate Computer Club Linux meeting to
> the Linux Australia list of Community User Groups at
> https://www.linux.org.au/foss_in_australia/LUGS/NSW.
> 
> Narara, New South Wales (Central Coast near Gosford)
> Australian Associated Computer Club
> 
> http://aacc.asn.au/

I think that perhaps we need a different set of pages for non-LUGs that offer 
some support of Linux.  Probably most people who visit a list of LUGs won't be 
looking for an organisation that has Windows support outweighing Linux support 
by a factor of 2:1.

While not directly about Linux BUGS seems appropriate for the list of LUGS as 
there are lots of things you can learn about BSD and expect that they will 
work on a randon Linux distribution (such as all the stuff that was copied 
from the original BSD Unix decades ago).

http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=site:www.unsw.compsoc.net+linux

The UNSW computer society seems to have little to do with Linux (only 8 hits 
for Google).  If they do some significant Linux stuff then their web site 
needs improvement, I can't imagine the typical person who is referred from a 
list of LUGS wanting to attend one of their meetings.

Also the UNSW computer society seems to be only for UNSW students, so having 
them in the list when most people who read that list are not permitted to 
attend seems like a bad idea.  I'm sure that UNSW students don't typically 
check external web sites when trying to discover campus resources.

On a related note I don't think that organisations that have significant 
membership fees or other barriers to entry deserve links from the LA web site.  
I think that a random interested person should be welcome to attend a meeting 
for free or for some trivial cost (EG $2 or less) for a group to be included.  
I suggest $2 as a maximum fee because I know that some LUGs levy small fees to 
cover refreshments etc.

https://www.linux.org.au/foss_in_australia/LUGS/VIC

In terms of the Victorian list, I doubt that a BeOS group was ever a LUG, and 
it also seems unlikely that they are having BeOS meetings any more as the 
company has been officially dead for 10 years.


IMHO a list of LUGs should only contain LUGs and groups dedicated to 
supporting other free Unix systems (EG *BSD and HURD, not Solaris).  Such 
groups should have the same entry requirements as LA itself, IE nothing other 
than the costs of hosting the event (LCA is AFAIK the only LA thing that 
people pay for).

People visit a web page expecting certain content and we should try and give 
them what they reasonably expect.

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