Re: HEADS UP! KSE needs more attention

Marcel Moolenaar wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 06, 2004 at 03:46:44PM -0600, Scott Long wrote:
> 
>>>As for alpha, we don't even seem to be able to degrade it to tier 2
>>>without losing face. kris_at_ has already stopped package builds for it
>>>for his own sake.
>>
>>It's not that there is face to loose on alpha, it's that every time
>>I announce that alpha is going to be killed unless issues X, Y, and Z
>>are fixed, someone comes along and fixes X, part of Y, and promises
>>to fix Z.
> 
> 
> I don't read anything I haven't read before. People have made promises
> before and good intentions notwithstanding, you cannot keep a project
> hostage this way. Degrade alpha and only promote it after people have
> actually demonstrated that alpha is tier 1 material after all.
> 
> 
>>At this point, I'm going to advocate that Alpha be dropped from Tier-1
>>status for 5.3 and 5-STABLE and no longer be a blocking item for
>>releases.
> 
> 
> Just *do* it. You've been advocating for way too long.
> 

There are always people with good intentions, and they often want to
find some way to help.  I appreciate this very much and I don't want
to turn them away.  We also can't make a snap decision in an afternoon
and risk missing people who have better things to do on their 
weekends/holidays than track FreeBSD mail =-) But yes, Alpha has been
languishing for too long.  I'll say it in a loud voice now:

This is the last call for Alpha.  It cannot maintain minimum tier-1 
requirements and it will be demoted for 5.3.  Unless you currently
have access to a representative selection of hardware, the knowledge
to track down platform-specific issues, the willingness to handle the
current outstanding issues, and the time to do it for the next 18
months, please accept my regrets on it. Again, while I appreciate people
who can pick away at some of the lesser issues or want to learn the
bigger things, we need a 100% maintenance and development solution.

Scott