[Slackbuilds-users] OPTIONAL field [was: qemu/spice-gtk and usbredir]

[Erik Hanson]

On Sat, 5 Nov 2016 22:35:28 +0100
Andrzej Telszewski <atelszewski at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 05/11/16 21:44, Erik Hanson wrote:
> > What I also don't see much (any?) mention of is what the admins will
> > have to refactor.. the website, php, database, internal tools we use
> > for submission/approval process (there are many) .. things are more
> > complicated behind the scenes than people realize. It's a messy and
> > time-consuming job. Adding an OPTIONAL field to the info file isn't
> > something that, if only someone would do it, magically "just
> > works".  
> 
> I don't know behind the scenes, for that reason I don't see 
> SlackBuilds.org as complex software project.

It is a complex software project. Everything we do was built from
scratch, accommodating a custom submission system, a database,
eventually git integration, and so on.

> I *do not imply* that it is easy from the maintenance point of view.

Currently, the active admins go above and beyond anything I would have
ever expected. I'm incredibly proud of the people we have brought on
board over the years. My heart swells when I think about how this
project continues to exist 10+ years later, and the level of quality we
maintain.

Another aspect of this, is that I expect they would feel obligated to
check everything in the OPTIONAL field, along side all the extra work
they already do. Even if I were to explicitly say "don't bother with
the OPTIONAL field" I know they would check it. They're just really
good people that way, focused on the quality of our repository.
Regardless of what I say, they're going to feel burdened by it. None of
us want junk in the repo, or broken OPTIONAL lines.

This is just a reality, and I'm going to fight against more work for
these volunteer workers that put so much passion into this project.
They have families and lives and I care for them deeply.

There are much more pressing issues, our current server is on it's last
legs, there's an "amber light of death", dmesg is filled with garbage,
and I don't expect it to survive a reboot. Up 962 days as of this
writing. We'll be fine for the foreseeable future, but something has to
be done. We're not going down, it's not doom and gloom, I'll be sure of
that. This is all just for reference as to why I'm really opposed to
big changes right now. Or rather, why I'm able to squint, give a keen
eye, and say "we really don't need this".


-- 
Erik