kareila: (Default)
kareila ([personal profile] kareila) wrote in [site community profile] dw_dev2014-09-13 12:14 pm
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dev chat meetings suspended; request for comments

A few months ago, I started scheduling regular dev chat meetings in an effort to increase awareness of our development efforts and discuss how to deal with common issues we all face in the course of development.

I think a lot of good has come from these chats. However, over the last six weeks or so, participation has fallen way off, and I'm no longer convinced they can continue to serve a useful purpose in their current form.

If it's a scheduling issue, I'm happy to move it around to get more attendance. I've asked before for alternative times and gotten no responses. I had hoped that by scheduling it to occur at the same time every couple of weeks, that would allow people to plan ahead to arrange their availability to attend. If it would work better to poll everyone for a preferred time for each meeting, I can try that for a while.

If it's not a scheduling issue, I'd like to know why more people aren't showing up to participate. It was made clear to me in the discussion here that there was definitely a perceived need for something like this three months ago. Has that need disappeared? Should we be trying to meet it in a different way?

Basically I want to do whatever I can to help facilitate communication in the development community, but I want to make sure my efforts are having the desired effect. Please comment if you have any thoughts on the matter. Thanks.
randomling: A wombat. (Default)

[personal profile] randomling 2014-09-13 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi!

I would really like to get back into DW dev, though I am also trying to manage limited spoons and earn enough money to get through Christmas right now...

I really like the idea of the dev meetings and have been lurking in -dev for a couple (and read through the logs of a couple more). I think the time you scheduled was Saturday afternoon-ish for me (in GMT), which I could probably manage for an hour or so if I prioritised it. But right now I'm struggling to prioritise things, which is about me rather than DW...

So I'm not sure I am really able to usefully contribute much, but I'll be interested to see what other people say.

[personal profile] alexbayleaf 2014-09-13 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not an active dev, but would have quite liked to have dropped in if they were at a convenient time. Unfortunately they were at 2am, so that didn't work for me. I'm not suggesting you schedule for my benefit, however -- I'm not likely to get very involved in DW dev anytime soon, I was mostly just interested in hearing what was going on and keeping informed.

FWIW we had similar problems with Growstuff IRC meetings. We used to hold them weekly at a time that rotated by 6 hours each week, i.e. at 0, 6, 12, and 18 hours UTC. That way people could always find one that was in their timezone. We announced each meeting on our mailing list so people would know the times. However, numbers dropped off rapidly after a little while, and we ended up stopping doing them.

I'm tracking this thread and would be interested to see what people say and how you end up working this out.
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2014-09-13 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not involved in dev right now, but I do like reading what everybody is up to when there is participation.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2014-09-13 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to participate. I am bad at:

- the executive function required to work out what time the thing is
- the executive funtion required to remember the thing is happening
- the executive function required to be in -dev given the extent to which my server is currently a crashy pile of sand and needs some more DDoS-proofing

I'm sorry about lack of participation on my part. I recognise that the problems involved are preeeeeetty much entirely my problem and there isn't anything you can do about them.
baggyeyes: Bugs Bunny and the Bull (Default)

[personal profile] baggyeyes 2014-09-14 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
This is me...except the server thingy. I do want to pop in and try to learn more, even tho my brain is currently the equivalent of dial-up.
vass: a man in a bat suit says "I am a model of mental health!" (Bats)

[personal profile] vass 2014-09-14 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
What [personal profile] kaberett said, except for "server is a crashy pile of sand" read "mental health is a crashy pile of sand".
ninetydegrees: Art: self-portrait (Default)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2014-09-14 09:47 am (UTC)(link)
It was a scheduling issue for me at first: I'm not home on Saturday nights and the other time is at about 4am or something like that. I wasn't aware other times were a possibility. Other reason was I hadn't done anything dev-related in a long time and didn't think I had anything to contribute. Finally IRC has never been something I was comfortable with or even liked and I believe other ideas were talked about in the discussion you mentioned but it doesn't seem like anybody wants to do that so *shrugs* it's never felt like something for me anyway.
Now circumstances have changed and I don't have as much time or energy as I used to so some DW support and wikiing elsewhere work better for me.
purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)

[personal profile] purplecat 2014-09-14 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
It was at root, I think, a scheduling issue. There was only one in four (I think) that occurred at a sensible time for me at any rate and that was a weekend afternoon time and so it was very easy for other things to be happening then. Then of course, it dropped off my radar somewhat so there was a "wait! what! there was a meeting?" kind of moment.

I think it was a good idea, I think you have a critical mass problem, and I don't know how to fix that.

EDIT: I also don't like IRC much, but that's a separate issue and conversations on comm clearly weren't generating much participation either.
Edited 2014-09-14 11:42 (UTC)
batrachian: (Purple Frog)

[personal profile] batrachian 2014-09-15 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
To provide a slightly differing perspective:

I seem to have been able to make to most of the Saturday-noon ones, but there consistently ended up being not a lot of people about, and I am far from confident enough to take an Active Position discussing stuff. (not senior enough, not familiar enough with the codebase beyond the small corners i've touched, possible impostor syndrome...)

Not sure i've seen an active chat except in the post facto logs, so...idunno. *flails indecisively*
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)

[personal profile] pauamma 2014-09-27 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope they resume eventually, maybe at a different frequency.