Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:44:23 +0000
To: ~alpine/devel@lists.alpinelinux.org
From: Rasmus Thomsen <oss@cogitri.dev>
Reply-To: Rasmus Thomsen <oss@cogitri.dev>
Subject: Does it make sense to keep ~alpine/aports running?
Message-ID: <24b91bd507e8151d41ac1d9866a4fd7a07febfe0.camel@cogitri.dev>
Feedback-ID: LZW2MXNaH7NSG88i8lGpebeqB0wmcl0-3TbzkSuzsmAwEQspn4GI-WRe8j3PhRL4SBmua4rQWq6fadPcLS5uxQ==:Ext:ProtonMail
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hello list,

After a patch for a package I maintain was posted on ~alpine/aports
I was wondering if it really makes sense to keep ~alpine/aports and to
keep allowing users to contribute by sending patches per email.
Currently the ML (for patches) isn't a good experience for both users
(as in patch posters) and developers (as in reviewers with push
permissions). Most Alpine developers just ignore the ML since they
don't like working with it or because there's no CI on the thing,
requiring them to either repost the patch on Gitlab as MR (which is yet
again more effort) or to test it locally and hope it works on other
arches. Additionally, it's effort to keep up with two hubs where
patches arrive from and for me personally it's a combination of all
three of those.
As such we let a lot of patches rotting because only few devs end up
checking them out. This scares contributors away, since no one wants
their contributions to just sit around without anyone looking at them.
So I think while the mantra of allowing users to contribute the way
they want is very nice, I don't think users are having a good
experience (_either_) due to missing reviews (and missing CI...).

In my opinion it'd make most sense to just shut down ~alpine/aports and
require users to make patches on Gitlab, as that'd offer numerous
advantages:

* No more conflicts between patches from the ML and Gitlab, users
rarely check out the ML if they use Gitlab or the other way around
to see if there are patches around for what they're doing already. This
wastes contributor's time and demotivates them.

* Reviewing patches is _way_ nicer on Gitlab compared to the ML IMHO

* We actually have CI on MRs - as mentioned we currently have to repost
patches on Gitlab for CI, which makes patches on the ML even more
tedious.

* And devs actually use the thing! Most devs just ignore the ML (me
included) and only review and merge changes that are posted on Gitlab.

I personally do feel like it's fine to keep the MR for other things
like user support or the devel list (although that sees very little
participation, so maybe it's time to switch there too...), but
~alpine/aports really doesn't make sense to me anymore.

Regards,

Rasmus Thomsen