Disappointed: My feature was removed without notifying me

Christoph Wickert christoph.wickert at googlemail.com
Wed Oct 8 18:09:12 UTC 2008


Am Mittwoch, den 08.10.2008, 12:38 -0400 schrieb Bill Nottingham:
> Kevin Kofler (kevin.kofler at chello.at) said: 
> > Bill Nottingham <notting <at> redhat.com> writes:
> > > There are descriptions which are translated as well....
> > 
> > Well, leave it blank, leave it in English (untranslated), put just a URL for 
> > the upstream web page as the description
> 
> ... or, actually follow the string freeze, and the string freeze break
> policy.

The first constructive statement I hear from a FeSCo member. In fact you
are the _only_ FeSCo member who responded to my mail at all.
> 
> > too, ... - anything is better than having a set of packages all packaged and 
> > reviewed, but hidden from users (not listed in comps, and rejected as a feature 
> > on the ground that it isn't in comps).
> 
> I'm sorry, but I'm missing the outrage -

I will try to explain it to you, please read below.

>  the feature page listed the
> following things, under 'Scope':
>   
>   * Package Reviews  (were not fully done)

But that's not my fault I guess.
>   
>   * Comps: new group with id "lxde-desktop", name "LXDE"...
> 	o mandatory: lxde-common, lxpanel, openbox, pcmanfm
> 	o default: gpicview, leafpad, lxappearance, lxtask, lxterminal, obconf, xarchiver
> 	... (wasn't done)

Wasn't done because
      * of the missing reviews
      * I expected someone from FeSCo to give me a go.

> 
> and, under 'Test Plan':
>   
>   As most of the packages are already in fedora they are proven to be stable.

Sorry to interrupt here, but this is important: It was well documented
that there already LXDE packages in Fedora for quite a while. There also
is a detailed list of which package is available for what release(s).

>  So we need to
>   
>   1. get the 2 missing packages into rawhide ASAP so they are included in the F10 Beta
>   2. add packages to comps
>   3. test that installation with yum-groupinstall works correctly
>   4. test fresh installs with the beta 
> 
> It wasn't even to having step 1 completed. So, exactly what else is there to
> do when even the basic scope and test plan of the feature isn't ready?

Bill, I _do_ understand that my feature has been dropped because it
is/was not testable and it breaks the string freeze, but I can not
accept the way _how_ this decision was made. Let me quote the complete
discussion about LXDE:

> bpepple: Feature: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/LXDE
> nirik: for lxde, sadly 2 packages are still in review... so I think it needs to go to 11 (ha ha).
> dgilmore: so not testable
> bpepple: nirik: do we know what's holding up those 2 reviews?
> nirik: unless those packages aren't critical for testing, but I think they are.
> nirik: bpepple: I glanced at them and there was a lot of discussion about what should be a subpackage, etc.
> wwoods: none of the LXDE packages are even built, AFAICT
> nirik: wwoods: some are, but thats because they were already in... like openbox is the windowmanager.
> notting: well, if they try and add the comps group now, they'll be breaking the string freeze
> nirik: yeah, so I think this should move back to next release... if they get it sooner great, we can trumpet it in 11
> bpepple: nirik: +1
> notting: +1
> bpepple: anyone disagree with pushing LXDE, otherwise we can move on.

Obviously the only one who was at least a little informed is nirik, he's
also the only one who apologized for "the lack of communication" in a
conversation we had yesterday. But nirik is wrong too: Those LXDE
packages that are already in Fedora are not there because they have been
forever but because they were part of my feature (lxtask, lxterminal,
lxlauncher, ...).
 
So the decision was made under the assumption that _none_ of the LXDE
packages has ever passed a review. How can somebody who has read the
feature page claim that? Why did nobody answer him back?

Summing it all up: My outrage is because
      * nobody contacted my to ask me for status or to tell me the
        feature was dropped. Nobody contacted me at all.
      * the wiki says [1]: "The feature owner is responsible for
        watching any owned pages for state changes, using the wiki watch
        feature." That's what I did, nevertheless I did not get
        notified.
      * I think I did everything I could to rescue my feature. I someone
        contacted me I would have responded.
      * the decision was made by people who obviously did not read the
        feature page and have no interest in the feature. If somebody
        has not read the page he should not speak up on that topic or
        decide about it, and if he has further question he should ask.
      * no FeSCo member except from Bill reacted to my previous mails.

> 
> Bill
> 

Once again: I accept that my feature is delayed, but I can not accept
the way it was done.

Regards,
Christoph

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Policy/Governance




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