Hi all,
The steering committee has discussed the current state of yt, where
things are and where they are going, and talked through various
strategies for moving forward effectively.
Where we're at right now is that many of the maintainers have been
timesliced quite a bit; this often results in bursts of activity,
which is then not followed up, and a long delay between (for instance)
pull requests being issued, being looked at, and issues being
responded to. Additionally, the thing that seems *really* lacking,
which needs to be addressed, is that the decision making process for
the community isn't entirely obvious -- not so much in terms of the
rules, but of what is being worked on, who's working on things, and
how to engage.
I've been somewhat less engaged with the project than I'd like lately,
and part of that has been situational (teaching, family, pandemic
overhead) and some of it has been that I've been trying to engage at
the project level without stepping on any toes *and* to try to
contribute code. The upshot was that neither was really happening!
So, after discussion with the steering committee, we've decided that
the best way forward for now is for me to step into a "project
manager" role. What this means is that I'll be taking on a much more
active daily role in yt. This will include being the first point of
contact for new issues and pull requests, being more assertive about
"assigning" issues to individuals (with the knowledge that they may
decline!), applying labels, editing issues for clarity and so on, and
also stewarding and managing the review process.
This also means that I'll be more engaged in public planning of
projects and utilizing the project management systems provided by
Github. We've long thought these were worth using, but where we ended
up was that in the absence of a consensus (or a lazy consensus) we
tended not to utilize new things for fear that they would go unused or
that others would not approve, or whatever. Additionally, we have in
place a structure for governance. But, this structure isn't
self-enforcing, and it will be in this role that I will work to ensure
we're following the guidelines, processes and structures we have
enumerated in our governance documents.
Finally, I'll be taking on the problem of holding and running
"meetings" and drop-in office hours. I have also been thinking about
ways of providing weekly updates on activity in the project for folks
who may have unsubscribed from the repo or who find the overall
communication volume to be not-quite-right.
But, all of this text aside, the proof will be in the actual *doing*
of things, and I look forward to *doing* things and being more vocal
about it.
-Matt
