As we prepare for Beta3, @animortis and I have been working on a press release to announce Beta3, but first, I wanted to explain about press releases/kits, how the Promotion Team plans to use them, and also ask for feedback/suggestions on how we will distribute press releases and press kits via our website.
Press releases are basically documents meant for the press telling them about some sort of significant event - such as a major release of Haiku. The format of a press release is standardised, meaning that any journalist anywhere around the world can read it and write an article on it including all the information given. Press kits are collections of resources related to an event like screenshots, photos and logos and can include press releases as well. Actually, Haiku did have press releases for all the Alpha releases, but this stopped likely due to the old Promotion Team becoming inactive on Haiku.
We plan to use press releases/kits for every major Haiku release, as well as for other significant events like competitions, or the upcoming 20th Birthday of Haiku. For Beta 3 we are planning to assemble a press kit with a press release, a copy of the release notes, and some screenshots highlighting the new release.
As to how we will distribute these, every time a new release comes out an article is created in the āNewsā section. Hereās the one for Beta 2: https://www.haiku-os.org/news/2020-06-09_haiku_r1_beta2/
As you can see, it doesnāt say much, apart from linking to the release notes and the information page for Beta 2 as well as the Press Contact page. What we are proposing to do is to put the press release on the article, and then adding a link to download the press kit at the top of the article. We propose that the press kits be stored in the /static/files/news folder, where the press releases for Alphas 1, 2 and 3 are currently stored. Website maintainers - would this be okay?
I will share a draft copy of the press release soon, we just have to finalise some things.
Yes, thatās how the website engine works, downloadable files go in static/files if you generate them as pdf. If you want it as html it should be in the ānormalā (non-static) part of the website, but not sure where (I am not happy with the current organization of the website, but thatās a story for another time).
By the way, Iāve created the pages for Beta 3 (still WIP obviously) for our website based on the Beta 2 pages - is it okay if I upload this to GitHub now so people can add information and work on them or should I wait?
Everything that gets into the master branch normally gets immediately published to the website.
Sometimes I workaround that by setting a publication date in the future in the article header, in that case it will not be published. I donāt know if there is a better way to manage this.
I find it annoying that the website is managed with git, which is somewhat ok for developers, but not really accessible to other people. But that is, again, a story for another time.
@PulkoMandy Also, I may as well tweak the Download button (and perhaps make new buttons as we talked about a while ago) - how would I do that? If the source file is a wonderbrush or hvif file, is there any way I can open it on Windows?
Thanks - Iāve gone into my Haiku VM and updated the graphic, but I donāt have access to the Haiku codebase so I couldnāt upload the updated graphic.
Here is the draft of the press release for Beta3, do note that since it is a draft, this is not finalised and things may change! Commenting is turned on, so feel free to provide your feedback/suggestions:
Thanks to @animortis for writing the press release!
Just confirming as well, will the media contacts for Beta3 be the same as the media contacts for Beta2?
Developer Quote Wanted
The Promotion Team is looking for one of the developers to send in a short quote about the release of Beta 3 - please PM me if you are interested.
Translators Wanted
Additionally, we are looking for translators to translate the Press Release and other related documents into other languages - French and German will be a priority since we have media contacts listed for those, but other languages are just as welcome. Please reply below to indicate your interest, thanks!
Well done.
I see that you specifically highlighted WebPositive for Beta 3. Are the bigger improvements planned for Beta 3 (that rebuild process I have heard about), or are those coming right after Beta 3 is released. I was unclear on that.
If thereās anyone volunteering to be the German media contact, Iād be more than happy to step down. While Iām happy to answer journalistsā technical questions and be a liason to devs/community, I donāt have the energy to do motivational articles or (shudder) podcasts etc. Blame it on being a full-time Haiku user for over a decadeā¦
ETA: Just for information, Beta2 resulted in zero requests by German media, so being a media contact wasnāt that much a burdenā¦
Hi,
There are a couple of changes to WebPositive that are in the nightly branch now. As for changes dependant on a newer webkit version, which is blocked on the version of haiku on the builders, this will probably be added during the branching of beta3, this includes changes like a newer webkit version, dark mode support and scrollbar sizes.
āIt provides several new features and performance improvements that makes Haiku even better.ā
makes -> make
Personally features and performamce improvements is such an overused term in changelogs that I automatically skip it, and unless there are concrete examples subconsciously assume that the author was too lazy to figure out what actually changed.
Sorry that I am putting my feedback here, I have no clue how one would comment on a google docs. I hope this feedback helped a bit.
It would prolly be a good idea to restrict permissions for anyone outside of the marketing team to suggesting, commenting, and viewing. It may quite risky to just let anyone directly edit the draft.
Same here. I was added to the list without being asked first, and did get one request for interview (which I replied to) and one request to write an article myself (which I have no time for). Iām more than happy for other people to get an opportunity to be the voice of Haiku
It will be done before beta3 is shipped (there is about one year of updates to WebKit that require updates to the haikuports builders, which we do a bit before each release). And there will be more updates after the release as usual, because people always find bugs only after releases, and never before
Hey there, you can view the pull request Iāve opened for that purpose on GitHub. It hasnāt been merged yet, and not much is going on at the moment, but you will start to see more activity as we get closer to the release date:
