Unpublished a project

I agree. If there is an issue with the site, there should be a webmaster's issue for it, not a project that isn't actually for Drupal.

Michelle

First, my short reply:

There's a problem on drupal.org. There's now a solution. This solution needs home. I kindly ask you, the community, to give it a home.

Now for the less short reply. First to Michelle's "there should be a webmaster's issue". Then to AjK's "it's simply not a Drupal module".

If there is an issue with the site, there should be a webmaster's issue for it

There already is an issue for it. The project page contains a link to that issue page. However, an issue page by itself does not solve the problem.

I'll explain the situation that I, and others like me, face, and therefore the importance of DrupalorgProxy, and therefore the importance of it having a home. The explanation won't be easy, almost everybody nowadays having a fast computer. Please bear with me.

Several months ago I cried for help. I was a very active member of d.o. in the past, but that accessibility problem forced me to change my habits. The issue I filed was demoted from "Issue pages hang browser" to "list of projects hard to use" and later to "duplicate".

But no, it's not a question of "hard to use". It's not a question of convenience. It's a question of being or not being here. I did try the trick Derek suggested there, of alternating between logged and anonymous user (my browser fortunately has an 'Enable cookies' checkbox), but I gave up after several tedious weeks.

I tried, really.

DrupalorgProxy now enables me to participate in this site, to continue my contribution to the community.

All I wanted was to share this possibility with others.

The reason for unpublishing is it's simply not a Drupal module

There are two reasons why I made it a module.

In the beginning it wasn't a module; I simply dropped it in my sandbox.

But when it's in the sandbox it lacks two things:
- Users, and I, can't file bug reports.
- Users don't know about it.

So I opened a 'project'. I didn't want to choose the 'module' type for it, because it indeed wasn't a module, but there wasn't any other choice. Surely it isn't a 'theme'.

Incidentally, I wanted to consult with you. It was a weekend, and I actually postponed opening that project for three days. Yes, I should have consulted with you.

The reason for unpublishing is it's simply not a Drupal module

The fact that something isn't a module isn't a reason to pull it down automatically. For example, I'm working on a FUSE access to drupal --a way to see and manipulate nodes via the filesystem-- and it isn't a module.

Let's return to my story:

In the beginning this 'module' didn't even had a 'release'. Because I didn't want to draw attention to it. I didn't even tagged the project. The existence of DrupalorgProxy reflects somewhat negatively on d.o.'s webmasters so I didn't feel it was "right" to make a big issue out of it. So I toned things down. Instead I just posted CVS download instruction on its page. But the CVS for some reason is lagging the past days, so to facilitate downloading I created a release.

To sum it up:

DrupalorgProxy isn't module, alright, but it needs _some_ home. Where else can I put it?

I can tone down the wording on its page, if that's what bothering you. I don't mind if it doesn't appear in the Modules listings, but it needs to have _some_ home.

A) Just because an issue is marked "duplicate" doesn't mean your life is over -- follow the link and participate in the older issue if appropriate.

B) I don't have the time or energy anymore to follow every single issue in all of project*, infra and webmaster queues like I used to. aclight was trying to do valiant work to clean up the project* issue queue, and I don't fault him for that at all. However, I just replied to the issue and marked it non-duplicate, since I don't think an autocomplete box is the best solution to this problem.

C) In the time it took you to write this entire Ruby proxy "module", make a project, make releases, etc, you could have easily done something like a patch to project_issue to make a per-user preference for where you want the issue followup form to appear. Just because I didn't jump up and down to solve a problem I don't have doesn't mean it can't be solved. If you have an itch, scratch it. However, I'm sure I'm not the only volunteer working on d.o who would appreciate a more collaborative approach.

If you read that issue, I only replied once (#201435-6: Huge list of projects hard to use, consumes excessive d.o. bandwidth, can hang browser) and didn't say "screw off", I just raised my (IMHO) legitimate concerns about why this isn't a trivial problem to solve, and why the various solutions discussed up until that point in the issue weren't yet satisfactory. To be accurate, I re-titled the issue from "Issue pages hang browser" which is only true for a small (tiny?) minority of the d.o user community, to "Huge list of projects hard to use, can hang browser" which is completely true for everyone, including in cases where it "can hang browser" like yours. You never replied to the issue again (in fact, you never replied at all after your original post). You never made any attempt to answer any of the concerns I or others raised. You never did anything to try to move that issue further along, you just posted it and, from as far as anyone could see, walked away from it. For all I knew, you got a faster connection and the problem went away...

I wish you actually stuck with your issue and tried to come up with a solution to your problem that would work, and contributed your efforts into improving project* and d.o itself, instead of this combative project node and hack work-around. I'd like to think I'm not an unreasonable maintainer. I'd like you to know that there are *A LOT* of contradictory requests and directions people want to move all this code in, there are 100 complaints for every 1 person helping, and I am not paid for any of this work. Therefore, I pick my battles, scratch my own itches first, and try to balance the conflicting needs and desires of the hundreds of thousands of people using this code the best I can in my almost non-existent "free" time.

All that's to say: I support unpublishing this proxy "module". I'd encourage you to try to find a solution to your problem that involves collaboration and working together, instead of going off and effectively saying "screw you, d.o webmasters -- you clearly don't care about me and you suck".

So, how about that patch for a per-user preference? ;) Or, at least think about the problem some more and propose a better alternative.

Thanks,
-Derek (dww)

Derek, thank you for your reply. I appreciate the time you took.

All that's to say: I support unpublishing this proxy "module".

+1

I accept your judgment.

I must admit that I didn't feel comfortable with that project page either. It somewhat insinuated that the webmasters are "evil" and it had the "combative" tone you mentioned, and all this is very wrong and certainly not what I had in mind. Frankly, I feel a bit ashamed right now.

You never replied to the issue again [...]
You never made any attempt to answer any of the concerns [...]
You never did anything to try to move that issue further along [...]

That's all very correct.

You yourself have explained the reason for my action:

there are *A LOT* of contradictory requests and directions people want to move all this code in, there are 100 complaints for every 1 person helping

I had to choose between:

• battling on this issue for months, and suffering browser hangs during this time; or:
• hack a quick work-around.

I chose the latter. The first choice would have drained my energies.

I totally agree with you that it isn't the "correct" solution. It's the *practical* solution, but certainly not the correct one.

Sometimes one just has to be practical. We all have to pick our battles.

I wish you [...] contributed your efforts into improving project* and d.o itself, instead of this combative project [...]

I accept your rebukes. Maybe I'll be able to help here; I'm not a hot-shot.

I'd like to think I'm not an unreasonable maintainer. [...] try to balance the conflicting needs and desires of the hundreds of thousands of people using this code the best I can in my almost non-existent "free" time.

You're alright, Derek.

Thanks.

(You may delete the project's nodes and cvs entries. I've moved the source code to my sandbox (not because I'm planning to publish it but because I utilize the cvs).)