How to edit and release the Ansible Bullhorn

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Bullhorn release process

tags: bullhorn

Bullhorn Release process

If you are interested in becoming a Bullhorn editor, contact @CommunityTeam and let us know!

Tasks the bullhorn editor does during the week

NOTE The biweekly release editor is responsible for going into the social matrix channel and checking that newsbot items have the correct emojis. If a newsbot entry doesn’t have a confirmation message, add :o: so newsbot picks the message up.

Also check for the correct category flags for each entry. See Ansible Bot Config for sections/projects. You should do this regularly during the week to make the render step below go smoothly

Newsbot emojis cheat-sheet:

Sections

  • :stopwatch:: Key Dates :stopwatch:
  • :speaker:: General News Updates :speaker:
  • :trophy:: Major New Releases :trophy:
  • :hammer_and_wrench:: Project Updates :hammer_and_wrench:
  • :magic_wand:: Collection Updates :magic_wand:
  • :pray:: Help Wanted :pray:
  • :ballot_box:: Proposals - Discuss and Vote! :ballot_box:
  • :date:: Community events & Meetups :date:
  • :ear:: Community Updates :ear:
  • :moneybag:: Ansible is hiring :moneybag:

Projects

  • :ladder:: Maintainers :ladder:
  • :zap:: ansible-core :zap:
  • :package:: ansible :package:
  • :pick:: devtools :pick:
  • :ox:: Antsibull tooling :ox:
  • AWX: AWX Project

Rendering the bullhorn in Newsbot

  1. Go to the “Newsbot Admin” matrix room (ping leo/gwmngilfen for access).

  2. Type!status to see list of news items submitted for current issue. (A bug sometimes prevents this step from working. If it doesn’t produce a list of bot entries quickly, go on to the !render step below and manually add any additional content to the rendered .md file).

  3. If the !status shows items in the ❌ Unassigned / ignored news entries (7) category, then check the emojis above to tag each item with the corresponding section

  4. Check for additional content and newsbot them if needed and add them as newsbot entries in the social channel.

  5. !render to generate the markdown file for the issue

  6. If render comes back with warnings items, you must address each of them first, then rerun !render until it has no warnings. Examples of these are:

    image
    image781×380 43.9 KB

    1. Compare the list of items in the list with all entries in the newsbot channel since the last !clear. Click on any the Newbot Admin channel that are missing from the list and it will go into that entry in the social channel.
    2. Add an appropriate emoji from Ansible Bot Config if it is missing. NOTE - collections don’t have project emoji so they will show up as info above and can be ignored.
    3. Can manually move if a ‘project’ update is really a call or voting and discussions.
    4. After you have fixed them all, run !render again and verify it has no warnings. This is the render.md file you will use below.

  7. Open the rendered.md file and verify that it looks complete.

Creating the draft post in the forum

  1. Create a new forum topic in the Newsletter area.
    NOTE - This must be in the Newsletter subcategory that is linked to by the above link!

    • Title: The Bullhorn #xxx
    • Tags: Add tags based on the content: #releases, #community, #awx for example

  2. Add the bullhorn banner by pasting the following to the top of the draft.

    • Teal:
    ![bullhorn-pool.png|600x200, 100%](upload://rmK8gYUKkT0B9pv3KxI2eUOi2wy.png)
    • Red:
    ![bullhorn-red|600x200](upload://xVdAWNVQGMrEBgy3NoFuPgsIhU4.png)

  3. Click the gear icon in the draft post and select insert table of contents

  4. Load the content of rendered.md into the forum draft

Clean up in NewsBot

Once you have the rendered file in a forum draft:

  • Ensure there are no new Newsbot entries added since you rendered. If there are, repeat the Rendering the bullhorn in Newsbot section above.
  • !clear in the Newsbot Admin matrix room to clear the list for next issue submissions.

Add additional content:

  1. Add the following to the Bullhorn draft after any other events:

Other events

See the Events - Ansible category for more upcoming Ansible community events.

  1. Add the following after Major New Releases:

Other releases :trophy:

See Ecosystem Releases - Ansible for more of this week’s releases.

Edit the markdown file

  1. remove the Frontmatter

  2. Edit the Bullhorn number within the forum draft to match the current number (see the newsletter category for the last number):

    • *Issue #137, 2024-05-10

  3. Review the content and edit as necessary for grammar, spelling and so on.

  4. Add subsection to each newsbot entry. Since we now have a TOC, we want each newsbot entry to have subsection headings to show up in that ToC. Ensure it is a heading level below the main section, and use Sentence case (ex. AWX update, not AWX Update).

copy-edit tips and tricks

  • AWX release messages - remove the word subject and make it a level-3 header instead.
    image

  • Check all links - if a link has a period at the end like 2.17. it won’t render well in the forum so add 2.17.0 so the preview is okay.

  • For collection or other releases - go find the release link and add it to the content in the forum bullhorn draft if not present.

  • Also find any relevate and missing direct meetup links.

  • Give this a full copy-edit for spelling, grammar, links, punctuation and spacing.

Post on the forum

  1. When you are satisfied and have verified the category is correct for the newsletter, post the topic to the forum.
  2. Review your forum topic to ensure it posted correctly and in the correct category.

Sharing to other channels

  1. Matrix: Announce in #social:ansible.com

    • @room :postal_horn: The [Bullhorn issue XYZ](https://link-to-forum-post) is now available! [insert highlights]

  2. Mastodon: Ask a community team member to post to Mastodon and any other social channels. They will need to unpin the last Bullhorn post and pin this one after posting. Also, star the toot after posting it, so the preview shows for everyone and if possible boost + star from personal profile.

  3. Reddit: Post to the Ansible subreddit r/ansible:

    • Title: The Bullhorn #XYZ (Ansible Newsletter)
    • One of the mods will have to go into the prior bullhorn post, click the mod shield, and unpin the old before they can pin the new Bullhorn.
    • Use a summary and a link back to the Forum post, don’t copy and paste the whole newsletter in case of duplicate content penalties.

  4. Linkedin: Optionally, share a link on Linkedin if you have an account there. Add ansible tag and any other tag appropriate for the content of that week’s Bullhorn.

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