On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 07:14:50PM +0200, Greg KH wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 05:27:14PM +0100, Mark Brown wrote:

> > for the users I talk to but there was always a very awkward period where
> > people were looking for an announcement but no information to base
> > things on.

> So, where should I do this "announcement" that will be seen by everyone?

I don't think it's a problem with location at the minute since you're
fairly quick at posting on your G+ and blog (though I didn't spot
anything on the stable list, it's possible I just can't see it due to
the volume there though), that was more about the old pre v4.4 days.

> And remember, we are just trying out the "preanounce" thing this time,
> let's see what happens, I'm not guaranteeing I will keep doing it...

Sure, and I think the main thing I'm saying here is that this lack of
predictability in your future plans is something the people I talk to 
mention and may be what Shibata-san was getting at also.

Part of the problem when the announcement was done after the release was
that there was a lot of trying to read the runes and guess what'll
happen and when going on behind the scenes, if people would like to
follow the LTS but also have product deadlines they can end up walking a
tightrope with their schedule and trying to predict LTS.  What you did
with v4.4 (announcing during the -rc cycle) addresses this, as does what
you've done this year pulling that even further forwards.  

If things don't work out with what you're doing with the preannouncement
it might be good to comment on that that and say you intend to do
something different next year, but hopefully everything will be fine of
course.