[Dev] Goals/direction for the coming year

[Nicolás A. Ortega]

> >    Our tracker is bad.  Maybe the problem is Redmine, maybe the
> >    problem is how we have Redmine configured.  It's hard for users to
> >    report bugs.  It's hard for potential contributors to find simple
> >    bugs to get started with.  And I don't think any of the current
> >    devs like it.  I think everyone who has opposed a change have
> >    opposed it for the same reason I have.
> 
> i'm thinking github's issue tracker is simple and featureful enough to
> be usable by anyone, but of course we won't use that.  gitlab is similar
> and you can also reply by email, but it's very heavy on resources and,
> at least on the instance i run for work, fairly unstable.  i don't know
> of any issue tracker similar to git{hub,lab}'s that isn't integrated to
> a vcs.
> 
> there's autonomous gitlab servers around, we could ask for an account on
> 0xacab.org for instance.  it's run by riseup.net people.
> 
> were you thinking of any others?  based on what i said, the features i'd
> like to see on an issue tracker are:
> 
> * minimalistic interface: just the bare needs, title, summary, comments,
>   tags and status
> 
> * reply by email: i don't want to have to go look at the issue tracker
>   on a browser, log in, etc if i can receive updates via email and
>   quickly reply from there
> 

May I suggest (if possible) using Savannah[0]? It's most certainly
minimal and I believe the issue tracker can be used without the need of
an account (which is always very nice). I am unsure of how easy it is to
reply by e-mail.

[0] https://savannah.nongnu.org/

> i'd like to see more drive-by patches, but also as a way to become a
> parabola hacker and expand more than the tiny set of people doing
> everyday stuff.  i know i burned out a few years back, i'm happily
> surprised other hackers haven't, but i don't like the overall situation
> where few people does a lot a things and no one knows exactly who does
> what or has access to.
> 
> a policy we stablished on another group i participate is for new people
> to have a "shadow", a sort of sponsor, one or two hackers that can show
> you the ropes, are ready to be queried when you're in doubt on how to do
> something and maybe ask you to do things (delegation is really
> important!).  we also have irregular get togethers to have beers and
> just chat, but i don't see it happening here :P
> 
> having said this, i don't think we have to obsess over numbers, booming
> can be very damaging to a community as great as this :)

At least in packaging it may be a good idea to add info on what needs to
be done in packaging (a sort of to-do list) that is easily found so that
people can even randomly contribute if they have spare time. Many people
may feel intimidated at the aspect of becoming a hacker of a certain
community because it tends to mean active involvement (which not
everyone has the time for), but they still have the technical ability to
give some quick fixes or contribute random packages. Perhaps a way of
contributing new packages to Parabola and have Parabola hackers review
the PKGBUILD and software? In fact, that could be a way for someone to
contribute as a Parabola hacker, reviewing new packages and other kinds
of contributions from random contributors.

Just some suggestions :)

-- 
Nicolás A. Ortega (Deathsbreed)
https://themusicinnoise.net/
http://uk7ewohr7xpjuaca.onion/
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