[fab] New project formation is out of control

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

On Wed, 7 Jun 2006, Patrick W. Barnes wrote:

> On Wednesday 07 June 2006 14:32, Greg DeKoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> > Comments:
> >
> > 1. I continue to assert that there are only two meaningful kinds of
> > project: incubators/SIGs/whatever, and full-fledged projects.  Why
> > distinguish between "ideas" and "incubator projects"?  Why does someone
> > need "a plan of action" to "graduate" to incubator status?  What's wrong
> > with having 2000 incubator projects, 1500 of which overlap?
> 
> A summary and a plan of action really aren't much to ask for, and the biggest 
> reason for doing so is to avoid having to create and maintain 2000 wiki pages 
> and 2000 new mailing lists that might not do anything.  We've had a number of 
> people throw out an idea, give it no further thought and start requesting 
> mailing lists and assorted other resources or privileges, and that can put a 
> strain on the people who can provide those things.  If someone can't 
> formulate a basic summary and plan, why should the rest of us put forth the 
> time and effort to give them resources?
>
> Differentiating between an idea and an incubator project gives us the 
> opportunity to say "these are the things you have to show us if you want us 
> to set stuff up for you."

If the process of:

1. Creating a mailing list;
2. Creating a wiki page;
3. Creating an IRC channel and getting ChanServ on it;
4. Adding a one-paragraph description of "the new project", with links to 
the aforementioned wiki/mailing list/IRC channel;
5. Potentially creating a CVS repo...

...represents *actual overhead*, then I'd say that we've got other
problems.  Which we may well have, actually -- but if so, *those* are the 
problems we need to solve.

I think the *real* fear is that we'll end up with a bunch of abandoned
projects.  This is fair, but personally, I don't see it as a bad thing, so
long as there's a good way for potential contributors to tell the
difference between "lively" and "dead" projects.  We can also figure out 
how to reap dead projects so often.

Every project, from the moment it's conceived in someone's mind, is 
incubating.  We should do everything in our power to support every single 
one of these harebrained ideas.
 
--g

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