papercuts-ninja team mailing list archive

[Chris Wilson <notgary@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Ninjas,

I've been thinking about the various spur-of-the-moment changes I've made
to things over the past couple of months, such as modifying the definition
of a paper cut and changing the milestones. These kind of changes don't do
anyone any good, so I was thinking that not only will I make sure I stop
doing this, but it might be worth us laying down a few rules on how changes
like that should be made.

There are a few important things that this project needs to run smoothly

   - A concise definition of a paper cut
   - Well defined milestones
   - There's probably more that aren't coming to mind right now

It's important for the smooth running of the project that these don't
change without a full discussion. Effectively, I'm thinking that if we pull
together a number of documents on the wiki, we could put together our own
constitution that states how the project should be run. Things may be going
OK just now, but if the project is going to last into the future, it needs
a solid set of rules the futures members and leader will follow.

There are many other projects in Ubuntu, almost none of whome would have
anything like this, but most of the other teams are either Canonical
engineering teams or community teams with a narrow focus for their work.

We, on the other hand, have a focus that is limited only by what we decide
it is, and without some rules or guidelines for us to follow, that kind of
flexibility can make the project very unwieldy and could lead to it coming
off the rails again. It's also important for new contributors to see that
the 'old guard' aren't going to form their own little clique and just make
things up as they go along while marginalising anyone they think is on
their lawn.

This is one of several threads I've started here on this and related
matters, and I before you respond to any of them (sorry for starting so
many by the way) please ensure you've read all of them so you're up to date.

Whatever we come up with, I'm not proposing we merge everything into one
large mega-document like the original OneHundredPaperCuts wiki page was
like, but we at least specify what is important and the procedure required
to change it.

What do people think? Am I talking out my area here or am I onto something?

Thanks,
Chris