On 22 Feb 2001 Kevin Pilch-Bisson wrote:
> In light of some of the comments given on page talking about subversion,
> I would like to make a suggestion regarding the subversion website. I
> think it would be good to move the status section closer to the top of
> the page, and try to update it at least once a week. I think that there
> are a lot of people watching the subversion pages, without being on the
> mailing lists, and it would be nice to give them frequent accurate
> status updates.
>
> What do you all think?
I think this is a VERY good idea. In fact, I think it's a big mistake that
many projects make, leaving users with a casual interest no way to easily
find news tidbits and status information. For example, this was a problem
with the Mozilla project for a long time -- the active developers knew that
the project was VERY busy, but if you weren't on the mailing lists or IRC
(especially IRC!), you were relying on the website for information and it
looked like the project was languishing when it was in fact very active.
Having a weekly status report (news, task status, bug & fixes, etc.) can
really help a lot. Summarizing significant threads from the mailing list
(a la kernel-traffic) is also valuable for people without time to track the
mailing lists personally. Having this information appear on a near-daily
basis is ideal, but weekly is probably sufficient.
Allowing the website to remain static for week after week is best avoided;
it conveys an impression of stagnation and inactivity, and discourages
people from returning often and maintaining an active level of interest in
the project. If there's usually something new and interesting on the site
(ideally daily, but at least weekly), it will encourage people to make it a
habit to visit the site, which will keep the project more at the forefront
of their minds and make it more likely they'll make the extra effort of
actually contributing in some fashion. It lowers the barrier to entry,
which is good for everyone...
But hey, this is just my opinion. I'm new here, ignore me. :-)
Deven
Received on Sat Oct 21 14:36:23 2006