On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 9:06 AM, C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato_at_collab.net> wrote:
> WEBSITE, IN GENERAL
>
> I traded some mails with Gavin Baumanis about website design stuff
> yesterday. We had indeed suffered a miscommunication about who was forging
> ahead on the plan. Gavin is hoping to start submitting patches next week on
> this.
As a drive-by comment, I haven't sifted through the mails to find out
where the subversion.apache.org current placeholder source is
residing, but it's probably worthwhile to throw in a link to "Oh, if
you're looking for Apache's instance of Subversion for all of the ASF
projects, go to svn.apache.org" or similar language. (The reverse of
the header we used to have at svn.collab.net. *grin*) We should
probably tweak the header on svn.apache.org as well...
> WIKI USAGE
>
> The general sense I got from some members of the Apache community about
> using a Wiki has led me to believe that the barrier to entry for community
> contribution is just going to be too high to bother with. It appears that
> we *can* get a Wiki, but contributors would need to be CLA-covered. And as
> with the sentiment around posting our doxygenized docs, I expect that we
> would have to somehow advertise the Wiki as "for developer usage only"
> (work-in-progress, use-at-your-own-risk, etc). So, far too restricted to
> see meaningful usage as a part of our primary website. That, plus the fact
> that it would be harder to get patches against wiki-ized material, means
> that I'm backing off the idea for now.
>
> Maybe we'll start using a dev-only Wiki in the future, though. (I'd
> certainly enjoy seeing the entirety of our notes directory moved to such a
> thing.)
No, I don't believe that those people on general@ were conveying
Apache policies properly.
Here's the deal:
- We can have a wiki that is open to everyone without a need for a CLA.
- However, if you want a wiki that automatically produces/exports the
authoritative subversion.apache.org site, then it should be restricted
to only committers of the project. This makes sense as it restricts
folks from p0wning subversion.apache.org.
So, most projects have two wikis: one for the site and one for
everyone else. Stuff like our notes and such are perfect for the
open-to-everyone wiki.
> <rant>I realize that the ASF needs to dot its I's and cross its T's,
> legally, but so far my experience herein has been not so glowingly positive
> from a community building perspective. "No nit left unpicked", or somesuch.
> I'm choosing for now to just trust that this is ultimately beneficial to
> everyone -- that perhaps the result of all of this is that the ASF refines
> some of its otherwise vague guidelines around such apparently disputable
> topics like "releases".</rant>
For the purposes of our community, just pay attention to your mentors
(me, Greg, Sander, Dan): we'll let you know what you need to know. =P
There's about a bazillion cooks in the Incubator kitchen and most of
them disagree on just about everything.
So, feel free to ask one of us if you get frustrated... *grin* -- justin
Received on 2009-12-10 19:58:02 CET