[development] CVS HEAD, code freeze, zeitgeist

[Dries Buytaert]

On 18 Aug 2006, at 22:50, Chris Johnson wrote:
> In fact, so much so, that thousands of people use and depend upon it.

> But it is an extremely complicated module that takes a long time to  
> understand, so as the author I continue to maintain it and upgrade  
> it, and do so with great care and speed.  More and more people use it.

Blessing your module with a "golden star" is not going to magically  
cultivate the wilderness.  If you are the single maintainer, and you  
happen to be a bottleneck (because you're having a sabbatical in the  
Andes or simply because you have too much work), a golden star is not  
going to magically upgrade your module nor is it going to send hordes  
of developers to your patch queue.

No, that would be a crack dream. :)

What you need (and what you really want) is people that know your  
module inside out (!), that share your vision for the module (!), and  
that can help you maintain it (!).  If your module is that important,  
it is your responsibility to build such team, to get people on board  
and to delegate responsibilities by making other people co- 
maintainers.  If you want to be a responsible maintainer, it's part  
of the job description to find, motivate, guide and empower people to  
take on a role within your project and to make it sustain.

I know because I learned to do exactly that.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/