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AllenJB wrote: |
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> Markos Chandras wrote: |
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>> On Tuesday 10 March 2009 14:15:36 Thilo Bangert wrote: |
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>>>> Bugs aren't a good way to keep in touch with developers, that's what |
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>>>> irc is for. |
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>>> while i dont necessarily think, that bugzi is the best way to stay in |
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>>> contact with me, it surely is a better way than IRC - on which i am |
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>>> close |
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>>> to never. |
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>>> |
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>>> the presumption seems to be, that as a dev one has to be available via |
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>>> IRC. it has long been my feeling that Gentoo as a project could realize |
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>>> more of its potential by better integrating people who dont do IRC. |
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>>> |
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>>> kind regards |
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>>> Thilo |
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>> |
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>> To be honest , I don't agree with that. Being around on irc is |
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>> quite helpful to get direct feedback from users and fix bugs before |
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>> they hit more users. This is a good way to reduce the amount of bugs |
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>> that hit bugzilla. |
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> |
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> While IRC is undoubtedly a useful communication medium, it is pretty |
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> much a "here and now" thing. I believe that Gentoo would benefit quite a |
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> lot if teams started using more permanent forms of communication such as |
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> blogs, wikis or websites. Not only would this allow the current set of |
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> developers within a team to know what one another are up to and what |
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> needs to be done, but it would also allow those who are not so |
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> intimately involved (both other devs, contributors and users) to keep up |
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> to date and contribute as well as leaving something for future |
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> developers to be able to look back on and see what options / |
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> improvements / etc were considered / done in the past. |
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> |
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> I recently wrote a blog post that went somewhat along these lines: |
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> http://allenjb.me.uk/blog/why-only-think-about-projects-for-gsoc |
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> |
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> As someone who's very interested in getting involved in Gentoo |
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> Development, I often find it hard to gather information on what projects |
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> / people are up to, what's currently going on and what the plans for the |
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> future are. |
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> |
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> |
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> AllenJB |
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> |
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|
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Just wanted to quickly add mailing lists to the explicitly mentioned |
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venues for improved communication. |
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|
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As a quick example, I'm interested in the PR / Newsletter side of |
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Gentoo, but I find it very hard to keep up-to-date. I recently learned |
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that there's a new blog-like version of the newsletter in development |
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but I've heard nothing else about it and searching hasn't turned up |
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anything. |
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|
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While I am on the gmn irc channel, I don't have time to read through all |
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the backlogs for relvent information. I am also on the gentoo-pr mailing |
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list (among many others, as well as checking on the lists via gmane) and |
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it's basically completely silent. I'm currently waiting to catch one of |
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two devs who might be able to give me more information on IRC. |
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|
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To all eyes looking from the outside in, unless they happen across the |
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one forum thread I did, the newsletter is dead and nothing is being done |
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about it, which gives a poor view of the state of affairs within Gentoo |
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Development. |
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|
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To take the bus analogy to this, if these 2 developers are hit by a bus, |
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then who knows what's currently going on with the newsletter and where |
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all the resources are? |
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|
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I have said it before and I will say it again, yes the newsletter may be |
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a current weak point for Gentoo, but it's a very obvious one because |
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it's the one that's visible to everyone in the community. I still think |
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my points are valid for any area of Gentoo development tho. |
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|
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AllenJB |