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List: kde-community
Subject: Re: Reducing the load on Sysadmin
From: Philippe Cloutier <chealer () gmail ! com>
Date: 2019-11-11 4:43:01
Message-ID: 7b27c1d0-c12a-ef6b-08a0-7980a8c5ae43 () gmail ! com
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This mail does not specifically reply to the following email from "KDE".
By the way Tom, your name comes out as the kind of vague "KDE", period.
I consider that reviewing whether a service should keep being offered is
a healthy exercise. At the same time, I agree with Albert in the sense
that the sysadmin manpower is not a constant, so phrasing the exercise
as one of "load reduction" can sound like a wasted recruitment
opportunity. Verifying that resources are sufficient seems like a less
confrontational, more positive and constructive angle. I think the
process should look like:
1. Listing the future costs (for example, we will need to reinstall the
server since Slackware Linux is no longer supported) and the
recurrent costs (for example, 1 hour of computation time each day),
next to the benefits provided.
2. Identify which contributors are willing to commit to support the
service, and to what level.
3. Listing the possible changes which can be done such shutting down
the service, adding a warning indicating that the service is
scheduled for shutdown in 1 year unless volunteers step up, hiring
employees, adding advertisements, giving more place to credits for
administrators, optimizing the work, etc.
4. If someone favors a change, validate its acceptability with the
community.
Building a wiki page which is widely editable seems like an efficient
and more perennial way to achieve steps 1 to 3 (and perhaps a
preliminary part of #4). Wiki pages would have the added benefit of
leaving some documentation and crediting the volunteers in charge.
On 09/11/2019 14:51, KDE wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It seems there is always seem to be someone within KDE that wants
> something new and shiny, I name gitlab, Discourse, a new identity
> system, etc.
>
> On the flip side, there is always someone that does not want to part
> with the old stuff.
>
> Hence there is always more stuff to do, while we must also maintain
> all the old stuff.
>
> Sometime you need a step back to create room to go two forward. We are
> just asking to think with us if some services are really needed.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom Albers
> KDE Sysadmin
> On 9 Nov 2019, 20:43 +0100, Albert Astals Cid <aacid@kde.org>, wrote:
>> El dissabte, 9 de novembre de 2019, a les 0:49:49 CET, Ben Cooksley
>> va escriure:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> One of the things that was prepared as a result of the Sysadmin BoF at
>>> Akademy was a list of systems and services which we look after and
>>> provide to the community.
>>>
>>> Whilst individually all of the services seem fairly reasonable and
>>> maintainable, the cumulative number of them has created a situation
>>> where they limit our ability to reasonably maintain our services as a
>>> collective whole.
>>>
>>> I've therefore conducted an analysis of all the various services we
>>> operate, with the objective of shutting down those services and sites
>>> that either provide marginal benefit to the community, are historical
>>> in nature or which could be provided better by others.
>>>
>>> Please note that while individually each item may seem small (and
>>> therefore "not an issue" to continue running), it is the collective
>>> number of them that create the problem.
>>>
>>> I'll shortly be sending out a series of emails regarding the services
>>> in question which have been identified for shutdown.
>>
>> Honestly i think you took the wrong approach here, removing things we
>> seem to be using because there's not enough sysadmins instead of
>> trying to increase the sysadmins.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Albert
>>
>> P.S: Maybe there has been an attempt to increase the sysadmins, if so
>> I apologize
>>
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Ben
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
--
Philippe Cloutier
http://www.philippecloutier.com
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<p>This mail does not specifically reply to the following email from
"KDE". By the way Tom, your name comes out as the kind of vague
"KDE", period.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>I consider that reviewing whether a service should keep being
offered is a healthy exercise. At the same time, I agree with
Albert in the sense that the sysadmin manpower is not a constant,
so phrasing the exercise as one of "load reduction" can sound like
a wasted recruitment opportunity. Verifying that resources are
sufficient seems like a less confrontational, more positive and
constructive angle. I think the process should look like:</p>
<ol>
<li>Listing the future costs (for example, we will need to
reinstall the server since Slackware Linux is no longer
supported) and the recurrent costs (for example, 1 hour of
computation time each day), next to the benefits provided.</li>
<li>Identify which contributors are willing to commit to support
the service, and to what level.</li>
<li>Listing the possible changes which can be done such shutting
down the service, adding a warning indicating that the service
is scheduled for shutdown in 1 year unless volunteers step up,
hiring employees, adding advertisements, giving more place to
credits for administrators, optimizing the work, etc.</li>
<li>If someone favors a change, validate its acceptability with
the community.</li>
</ol>
<p>Building a wiki page which is widely editable seems like an
efficient and more perennial way to achieve steps 1 to 3 (and
perhaps a preliminary part of #4). Wiki pages would have the added
benefit of leaving some documentation and crediting the volunteers
in charge.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 09/11/2019 14:51, KDE wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ab4441a6-adb1-4b76-a8bd-8c61ae740723@Spark">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title></title>
<div name="messageBodySection">
<div dir="auto">Hi,
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">It seems there is always seem to be someone
within KDE that wants something new and shiny, I name
gitlab, Discourse, a new identity system, etc.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">On the flip side, there is always someone that
does not want to part with the old stuff. </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Hence there is always more stuff to do, while
we must also maintain all the old stuff.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Sometime you need a step back to create room
to go two forward. We are just asking to think with us if
some services are really needed.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div name="messageSignatureSection"><br>
<div class="matchFont">
<div dir="auto">Best,
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Tom Albers</div>
<div dir="auto">KDE Sysadmin</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div name="messageReplySection">On 9 Nov 2019, 20:43 +0100, Albert
Astals Cid <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:aacid@kde.org"><aacid@kde.org></a>, wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" class="spark_quote" style="margin: 5px
5px; padding-left: 10px; border-left: thin solid #1abc9c;">El
dissabte, 9 de novembre de 2019, a les 0:49:49 CET, Ben
Cooksley va escriure:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" class="spark_quote" style="margin: 5px
5px; padding-left: 10px; border-left: thin solid #e67e22;">Hi
all,<br>
<br>
One of the things that was prepared as a result of the
Sysadmin BoF at<br>
Akademy was a list of systems and services which we look
after and<br>
provide to the community.<br>
<br>
Whilst individually all of the services seem fairly
reasonable and<br>
maintainable, the cumulative number of them has created a
situation<br>
where they limit our ability to reasonably maintain our
services as a<br>
collective whole.<br>
<br>
I've therefore conducted an analysis of all the various
services we<br>
operate, with the objective of shutting down those services
and sites<br>
that either provide marginal benefit to the community, are
historical<br>
in nature or which could be provided better by others.<br>
<br>
Please note that while individually each item may seem small
(and<br>
therefore "not an issue" to continue running), it is the
collective<br>
number of them that create the problem.<br>
<br>
I'll shortly be sending out a series of emails regarding the
services<br>
in question which have been identified for shutdown.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Honestly i think you took the wrong approach here, removing
things we seem to be using because there's not enough
sysadmins instead of trying to increase the sysadmins.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Albert<br>
<br>
P.S: Maybe there has been an attempt to increase the
sysadmins, if so I apologize<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" class="spark_quote" style="margin: 5px
5px; padding-left: 10px; border-left: thin solid #e67e22;"><br>
Cheers,<br>
Ben<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Philippe Cloutier
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" \
href="http://www.philippecloutier.com">http://www.philippecloutier.com</a></pre> \
</body> </html>
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