1 |
Petteri Räty <betelgeuse@g.o> posted 461BF4D1.6090204@g.o, |
2 |
excerpted below, on Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:34:25 +0300: |
3 |
|
4 |
> As the recent thread showed there is a lot going on in Gentoo land |
5 |
> although it doesn't always seem so. I propose we extend project xml to |
6 |
> describe current stuff going on in the project in question and their |
7 |
> estimated completion date. Then we require this file to be updated |
8 |
> monthly. What do you think? |
9 |
|
10 |
I think proposals such as this have come up before. (No offense |
11 |
intended. In fact, probably you and enough others it's time to outline |
12 |
the reasons again, simply weren't around at the time.) I think they went |
13 |
nowhere, in part because it was thought to be just more bureaucracy |
14 |
forced (the term you used was required) on the team leads, to little |
15 |
ultimate effect (see kloeri's cron remarks). |
16 |
|
17 |
Remember, Gentoo's all volunteers. You can't force them to do it as part |
18 |
of their job (for their paycheck). What's the penalty going to be? |
19 |
Suspension of the team lead, throwing a monkey wrench in the progress |
20 |
that was being made? Dissolving the project? From what I've observed |
21 |
here and elsewhere over the years, a "requirement" that can't be enforced |
22 |
is a very unhealthy thing. |
23 |
|
24 |
Thus, it's not a very practical idea, or at least no one was able to |
25 |
figure out how to make it such in previous rounds. |
26 |
|
27 |
Instead, what tends to happen is somewhat less frequently and more |
28 |
informally, but perhaps more effectively as it's not forced. |
29 |
Periodically, perhaps twice a year or so, someone starts a thread like |
30 |
the one you referred to. Often it's prompted by year-end or mid-year, |
31 |
and someone posts an impromptu summary of where their project is. Other |
32 |
times, it's as this one, started for other reasons. However, once one |
33 |
person posts a summary, another does and another, and pretty soon most of |
34 |
the projects have... and everybody did it impromptu, nothing "required" |
35 |
about it. =8^) |
36 |
|
37 |
Of course, in more specific cases, the council notices and ultimately |
38 |
meetings often bring about discussion of projects of particular interest |
39 |
at the moment. |
40 |
|
41 |
In any case, it may not get to the project's web page, but anyone (dev, |
42 |
user, journalist, or simply curious public) caring enough to follow this |
43 |
list ends up seeing the updates as I said, perhaps twice a year or so. |
44 |
If one were suitably devious, one could even scheme to generate such a |
45 |
thread starter every few months (cron /that/ reminder =8^), just to get |
46 |
the pile-on effect and see where everyone was, again without "requiring" |
47 |
reports of anyone. =8^) |
48 |
|
49 |
Of course, often these threads get mentioned in GWN and thus features not |
50 |
only there, but as a result on the Gentoo home page and on community |
51 |
sites such as LWN as well, so one doesn't even have to follow this list |
52 |
to know about it, only make /some/ effort to be keeping up with general |
53 |
things Gentoo, and they'll probably see coverage of the thread. |
54 |
|
55 |
-- |
56 |
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
57 |
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
58 |
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
59 |
|
60 |
-- |
61 |
gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |