[gentoo-dev] Re: RFC: extending project xml to have stuff that the project is working on and collect them as Gentoo current goals

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Petteri Räty <betelgeuse@gentoo.org> posted 461BF4D1.6090204@gentoo.org,
excerpted below, on  Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:34:25 +0300:

> As the recent thread showed there is a lot going on in Gentoo land
> although it doesn't always seem so. I propose we extend project xml to
> describe current stuff going on in the project in question and their
> estimated completion date. Then we require this file to be updated
> monthly. What do you think?

I think proposals such as this have come up before. (No offense 
intended.  In fact, probably you and enough others it's time to outline 
the reasons again, simply weren't around at the time.)  I think they went 
nowhere, in part because it was thought to be just more bureaucracy 
forced (the term you used was required) on the team leads, to little 
ultimate effect (see kloeri's cron remarks).  

Remember, Gentoo's all volunteers.  You can't force them to do it as part 
of their job (for their paycheck).  What's the penalty going to be?  
Suspension of the team lead, throwing a monkey wrench in the progress 
that was being made?  Dissolving the project?  From what I've observed 
here and elsewhere over the years, a "requirement" that can't be enforced 
is a very unhealthy thing.

Thus, it's not a very practical idea, or at least no one was able to 
figure out how to make it such in previous rounds.

Instead, what tends to happen is somewhat less frequently and more 
informally, but perhaps more effectively as it's not forced. 
Periodically, perhaps twice a year or so, someone starts a thread like 
the one you referred to.  Often it's prompted by year-end or mid-year, 
and someone posts an impromptu summary of where their project is.  Other 
times, it's as this one, started for other reasons.  However, once one 
person posts a summary, another does and another, and pretty soon most of 
the projects have... and everybody did it impromptu, nothing "required" 
about it. =8^)

Of course, in more specific cases, the council notices and ultimately 
meetings often bring about discussion of projects of particular interest 
at the moment.

In any case, it may not get to the project's web page, but anyone (dev, 
user, journalist, or simply curious public) caring enough to follow this 
list ends up seeing the updates as I said, perhaps twice a year or so.  
If one were suitably devious, one could even scheme to generate such a 
thread starter every few months (cron /that/ reminder =8^), just to get 
the pile-on effect and see where everyone was, again without "requiring" 
reports of anyone. =8^)

Of course, often these threads get mentioned in GWN and thus features not 
only there, but as a result on the Gentoo home page and on community 
sites such as LWN as well, so one doesn't even have to follow this list 
to know about it, only make /some/ effort to be keeping up with general 
things Gentoo, and they'll probably see coverage of the thread.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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