Project Guidance

[crux]

I was asked for some constructive criticism so here goes.

first off I think everyone should read this book. http://producingoss.com/ it has been translated into a few other languages, it is very well written, and it describes lots of the pitfalls to this project to a T.

problem 1, no (visible?) leadership.
you guys need really need a Benevolent Dictator.
http://producingoss.com/en/social-infrastructure.html

The benevolent dictator model is exactly what it sounds like: final decision-making authority rests with one person, who, by virtue of personality and experience, is expected to use it wisely.

problem 2, lack of a good Release Owner & Stabilizing a Release.

The last-minute feature rush is a familiar phenomenon in collaborative software projects: as soon as developers see that a release is about to happen, they scramble to finish their current changes, in order not to miss the boat. This, of course, is the exact opposite of what you want at release time. It would be much better for people to work on features at a comfortable pace, and not worry too much about whether their changes make it into this release or the next one. The more changes one tries to cram into a release at the last minute, the more the code is destabilized, and (usually) the more new bugs are created.

beta 4/5/6/7/8/9/10... I don't think I must say more?

problem 3, lack of (visible?) communication
where is all the decision making going on?
I assume it is on IRC but I can't locate logs of what is going on anyplace except the main #warzone2100 channel.
if there is a logging bot for #warzone2100 then why not #warzone2100-developer?
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone ... iscussions

The temptation to make decisions behind closed doors and present them as faits accomplis, or at least as the firm recommendations of a united and influential voting block, will be great indeed.

Don't do it.

problem 4, your only as good as your bug tracker.
I guess this could be site issues but there are huge gaps in the archives on https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/warzone-dev/ unless there is another secret(?) list someplace? I don't understand why project is hosted on sourceforge, trac is here, and the mailing list is on gna.org.
that is very odd.

http://producingoss.com/en/bug-tracker.html
too much to quote, but a good read!

problem 5, no code review(?)
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone ... ode-review
is this even being done someplace on a frequent basis?
I see a few trac tickets about some code but it may also be done on another mailing list(?) or IRC ?

problem 6, communications of developers.
I can't stress this one enough.
http://producingoss.com/en/common-pitfa ... th-purpose

A common pitfall in online project participation is to think that you have to respond to everything. You don't.

read the whole chapter
and
http://producingoss.com/en/communications.html
and http://producingoss.com/en/managing-vol ... -criticism

that should cover the main points and I really hope this helps get this project on stable ground again.

[cybersphinx]

beta 4/5/6/7/8/9/10... I don't think I must say more?

The number of betas is not so much the result of us suddenly deciding that our code is perfect as having the occasion to do so. Before Giel fixed the build scripts in a way I could use them, only Buginator was able to make Windows installers, and he's away for weeks occasionally, so getting a release together was a pain. The more frequent releases also expose more problems - but I don't think the final release would be better with less betas, simply because not many people actually test SVN.

problem 3, lack of (visible?) communication
where is all the decision making going on?
I assume it is on IRC but I can't locate logs of what is going on anyplace except the main #warzone2100 channel.
if there is a logging bot for #warzone2100 then why not #warzone2100-developer?

#warzone2100-dev was created as a private channel in the beginning, so there are no public logs for it.

problem 5, no code review(?)
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone ... ode-review
is this even being done someplace on a frequent basis?
I see a few trac tickets about some code but it may also be done on another mailing list(?) or IRC ?

We once had a commit list that included the diffs, but after moving to Gna nobody except me wanted that again... Most patches go through trac or are discussed on IRC, the mailing list has been neglected for a long time.

[Zarel]

Thank you, crux; that was a very informative post!

problem 3, lack of (visible?) communication
where is all the decision making going on?
I assume it is on IRC but I can't locate logs of what is going on anyplace except the main #warzone2100 channel.
if there is a logging bot for #warzone2100 then why not #warzone2100-developer?
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone ... iscussions

Decision-making is usually very visible - it's in the General Development forums.

problem 4, your only as good as your bug tracker.
I guess this could be site issues but there are huge gaps in the archives on https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/warzone-dev/ unless there is another secret(?) list someplace? I don't understand why project is hosted on sourceforge, trac is here, and the mailing list is on gna.org.
that is very odd.

The project used to be hosted on Gna.org - we haven't really found need to move the mailing list yet. We moved the bug tracker to this website because Trac is very nice to use, and Gna's bug tracker was horrible - many other projects use this model as well.

I don't understand what you mean by "huge gaps" - the archives seem normal to me. As cybersphinx mentioned, #warzone2100-dev is a good channel to follow Warzone development - although note that it is meant only for development; other Warzone development belongs in #warzone2100.

[crux]

problem 3, lack of (visible?) communication
where is all the decision making going on?
I assume it is on IRC but I can't locate logs of what is going on anyplace except the main #warzone2100 channel.
if there is a logging bot for #warzone2100 then why not #warzone2100-developer?
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone ... iscussions

Decision-making is usually very visible - it's in the General Development forums.

I don't see anything about when someone decides when the next release is going to be released.
that kind of communication.

problem 4, your only as good as your bug tracker.
I guess this could be site issues but there are huge gaps in the archives on https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/warzone-dev/ unless there is another secret(?) list someplace? I don't understand why project is hosted on sourceforge, trac is here, and the mailing list is on gna.org.
that is very odd.

The project used to be hosted on Gna.org - we haven't really found need to move the mailing list yet. We moved the bug tracker to this website because Trac is very nice to use, and Gna's bug tracker was horrible - many other projects use this model as well.

I don't understand what you mean by "huge gaps" - the archives seem normal to me. As cybersphinx mentioned, #warzone2100-dev is a good channel to follow Warzone development - although note that it is meant only for development; other Warzone development belongs in #warzone2100.

I mean there are huge gaps between what trac shows and what is shown on the mailing list.

[Zarel]

I don't see anything about when someone decides when the next release is going to be released.
that kind of communication.

That's usually done on the mailing list - someone posts an intention to tag a few days before a release is tagged. More detailed discussion is done on the development IRC channel.

I mean there are huge gaps between what trac shows and what is shown on the mailing list.

I still don't understand. What do you mean? What does Trac show that the mailing list doesn't, or vice versa?

[crux]

I mean that when people make tickets that should be echoed to the mailing list right?
there are some trac tickets that never show up on the mailing list for some reason

[Zarel]

I mean that when people make tickets that should be echoed to the mailing list right?
there are some trac tickets that never show up on the mailing list for some reason

Yes, sometimes the mailer gets broken. There's nothing I can do about that. It's working right now, at least.

[Kamaze]

Trac just echoes to the Dev-ML. There are some timeframes where this mailing functionality was broken.

[Buginator]

Thanks for the links crux, looks like a good read.