Regarding RC3 and RC4

[SpacePhoenix]

Are we literally now just waiting on a staff member to move RC3 to the downloads page to replace RC2?

[Kindred]

No. The release process is not quite that simple.

[Arantor]

If something is painful, do it more often (so you make it less painful).

[DenDen60]

No. The release process is not quite that simple.

Can you share a link that explain the process? I would like to know more.


I check this page https://github.com/SimpleMachines/SMF2.1/compare/6a55d92...release-2.1 and I see that there is a checking phase. Are there other steps?


Thanks
   

[Arantor]

No, the process involves a whole bunch of things that are none of our business.

[m4z]

The process is not public, mostly because most steps are behind-the-scenes stuff revolving around creation, testing and release of the software, language files, and customizations of this site.

Even if the process was made public, it would need to be heavily commented to even make sense to people outside the team. (Not saying you're too stupid to understand; I'm saying I myself don't understand parts of it because I don't know or don't have access to the things it talks about, so it's just technobabble to me.)

[DenDen60]

The process is not public, mostly because most steps are behind-the-scenes stuff revolving around creation, testing and release of the software, language files, and customizations of this site.

Even if the process was made public, it would need to be heavily commented to even make sense to people outside the team. (Not saying you're too stupid to understand; I'm saying I myself don't understand parts of it because I don't know or don't have access to the things it talks about, so it's just technobabble to me.)

Thank you m4z.


Your first sentence explained what I wanted to know. I did not want any specifics; just the general. ;-)

[Arantor]

But *why*? What possible benefit does it have for you to know, other than to feel entitled to know something that wasn't explicitly explained in detail before, that is in no way relevant?

[landyvlad]

Arantor - let's not make this another one of those threads eh.  Q asked, and answered adequately by m4z.
Let's move on.

[MisterVector]

Why has it taken around 6 years to get from beta 1 to nearing RC3 today? That is a long span of time between these two versions.

[m4z]

Why has it taken around 6 years to get from beta 1 to nearing RC3 today? That is a long span of time between these two versions.

Community/Translator perspective: The total community seems to be tiny compared to a few years ago, most languages have close to no support and no translators.

Team/Support perspective: A lot of people jumped off, onboarding people takes at least a couple of months... (Compare, f.e., 2005, 2012, 2016, and today.)

Code perspective: Because the changes were huge (that's a given after that time), only ~21 people in total helped (top right side; that number probably only includes people with merge permission), the total activity went down a lot, and currently only ~6 people (including you) are working on the code. And understanding the code takes time, too.

Testing perspective: Tests are manual, only ~1 person currently has the time to thoroughly test on multiple setups (we're working on it...)

And for all of the above: Even if we "select" people to help, not everybody actually ends up helping. F.e. of the newly accepted translators (maybe 1 applicant per month on average; maybe half of them are actually able to translate appropriately and are accepted), at least 1/4 never actually begins translating because they're scared off by the amount of onboarding documentation, or hugely underestimate the amount of work, or realize that they need a pretty good understanding of SMF and its features to be able to translate it. We don't know the actual reasons, because usually they never report back, and are stripped of their permissions again after some months of inactivity.

And, to say it again, even if some say it's not a valid reason: We're all volunteers.
I personally work 8-10 hours a day, and the rest is split between eating, sleeping, shopping groceries, health/sports stuff, family, and hobbies (one of which is SMF). In a normal week, I currently have 2-8 hours I can spend on SMF.
That goes into fighting spam, translation stuff, team-internal communication, reading support threads and sometimes being able to actually provide support (especially in the german boards, which are pretty dead regarding helpers besides myself), working on better testing of SMF, reporting bugs I find, and patching some minor bugs I find (I don't really speak PHP). The more stuff piles up in front of that list, the less chance I even get to the latter parts of it in any given week.

And, intended or not, massive amounts of rants waste our precious SMF time even more (if you expect us to read them; I'm only half through that thread, I usually only read 1 rant page daily, max). Stop complaining (not directed to you personally, MrVector!), start helping.

(It took me maybe an hour to write this post.)


Edit: Forgot spam.

[Arantor]

Massive rants are how you know someone still cares. When there's only silence, it's time to move on.

[marcosbr]

RC3 will leave ... They will charge RC4 and then they will fight for the final!
Exercise for writing and reading! 

[Ricky.]

...
...
(It took me maybe an hour to write this post.)


Edit: Forgot spam.

Really appreciable.

Massive rants are how you know someone still cares. When there's only silence, it's time to move on.

I love reading his replies, sometimes they are really good and sometimes he just being aRantor. 

[Ramón Cutanda]

@m4z, I subscribe every word. Thank you. I really don't understand the fuss. SMF is offered for free. If you believe in the project, then help. If you can't help, don't complain. And if SMF does not offer you what you want, then leave; use other freeware platform or consider paying for an alternative.

Thank you to all the coders still working on this wonderful forum. It may not have all the bells and whistles found elsewhere, but that DID NOT stop me from starting my forum 14-15 years ago and having it grow ever since. Even if SMF only released security patches I would still be more than satisfied and I can only  be grateful for what I have been given for free all this time. Once again. THANK YOU.

Bests,

[d3vcho]

Massive rants are how you know someone still cares. When there's only silence, it's time to move on.

No. That's toxic.

[Arantor]

Guess I'm toxic then. Oh well, it was nice knowing you all.

[zappaDPJ]

SMF is offered for free. If you believe in the project, then help. If you can't help, don't complain. And if SMF does not offer you what you want, then leave; use other freeware platform or consider paying for an alternative.

Many of us quite rightly in my opinion have pretty much the same expectations of free software as they do a retail product. I run an after school learning facility for underprivileged children as a charitable trust. I don't get paid but it's subject to the same scrutiny as any other state or private educational establishment.

Just because something is free doesn't mean it shouldn't be subject to the same scrutiny as anything else and it doesn't mean that complainants with valid and constructive criticism have to contribute or disappear. Many of us contribute our free time to society elsewhere.

I have used this software for many years and I still have some faith in the project. However I will still post what I hope is considered constructive criticism even if I don't have the time to contribute in a more meaningful way.

Massive rants are how you know someone still cares. When there's only silence, it's time to move on.

Spot on. The majority of vBulletin owners let their feelings known in no uncertain terms when things went downhill there. Now there's silence because the majority migrated to Xenforo.

[-Rock Lee-]

It may be my Latino condition (I am from Argentina) where they want to sell you a Pentium 4 or dual core as if it were from 2022 makes you think that something has been standing for so long it is not bad but if it eventually shows signs of working, it's already a very good thing. Many times it is difficult to understand everything takes time and knowledge as such adding is something voluntary that over the years changes many things.

I work between 10-12 hours repairing cell phones/tablet/PC, the comment "I don't see you did anything" or "You charge me for doing something silly" it is common currency, however they keep bringing their equipment to me for repair. Then the counterpart who supports with words, with confidence, what generating another type of personal treatment and understands the effort involved.

What leads to my conclusion is easier to complain about everything to see if something changes and it is the opposite... as they say it is easier to criticize than to do something. Also in this world there is everything both people support SMF (I include myself) and people only seek to criticize without quarter.

[Doug Heffernan]

Massive rants are how you know someone still cares. When there's only silence, it's time to move on.

No. That's toxic.

What are you talking about? That is not toxic at all. From what I have seen Arantor cares deeply for Smf, and he has been nothing but helpful to a lot of users who have asked for support here.

Calling him toxic is uncalled for and respectless too imo.