Communication from eplaya technical team to user community

[technopatra]

> it's my preference not to use mods in beta.
There may be times to make exceptions, but you can't know that
without doing a thorough evaluation. If this mod fulfills several of the
pending feature requests (which I *think* it does, but am not totally
sure), then it's probably worth spending time to evaluate.

You're right about that. I'm gonna have Spanky make the final call on the beta policy when he gets back.

> I thought I'd caught everything.

I think you did. It wasn't that, it was that I remembered saying things that
I wanted to say again, and couldn't just point to them. No biggie. I'm
pretty sure nothing fell through the cracks. It just seemed weird that stuff
was disappearing.[/quote]

Yeah, the auto-pruning was only set for this forum - we must've missed it when the others were all turned off. Thanks again for alerting me to the missing posts.

[III]

>beta policy

i'd suggest that the beta policy not be a simple thumbs up/down, but rather just a stricter set of criteria to meet.

however, writing those criteria can b e a pain in the ass, and implementing them without a properly trained test team (and it's amazing what passes for "properly trained" even in the real for pay world) would be difficult at best.

i spose what i'm saying is that it'd be nice to be able to vet the software ourself, but it's not much easier than writing it ourselves, and may not actually be feasible

[technopatra]

>beta policy

i'd suggest that the beta policy not be a simple thumbs up/down, but rather just a stricter set of criteria to meet.

however, writing those criteria can b e a pain in the ass, and implementing them without a properly trained test team (and it's amazing what passes for "properly trained" even in the real for pay world) would be difficult at best.

i spose what i'm saying is that it'd be nice to be able to vet the software ourself, but it's not much easier than writing it ourselves, and may not actually be feasible

My preference to err on the side of caution is mostly based on our obligation to the phpbb developer community. When we work with others' tools, we want to make sure that any adjustment we make can be shared back with them. To do so, we must submit the mods in their template.

Also, if we add unapproved mods, it's probable that they won't be compatible with future versions of the phpbb software, thus creating even more work and objects to fall into cracks.

On the other hand, it might very well be feasible for us to tweak an existing and desirable, but unapproved mod then submit it for phpbb approval.

I totallyagree that we should have a defined policy one way or the other, but as I said, I'm leaving it to the developers to do so.

[III]

>unapproved mods, it's probable that they won't be compatible with future versions of the phpbb software

it's not clear to me that this is even true for approved mods. as far as i can tell, the only thing validation buys you is that it shouldn't break the existing system.

everything else i'll happily agree with you on.

smooches.

[Bob]

<crickets>

[technopatra]

>unapproved mods, it's probable that they won't be compatible with future versions of the phpbb software

it's not clear to me that this is even true for approved mods. as far as i can tell, the only thing validation buys you is that it shouldn't break the existing system.

Once again, you are right. We'll have to upgrade all mods every time we upgrade the phpbb version.

Fortunately, we won't be doing that too often, and we will be planning for it - sandbox, test, test, test, stage, test, test, test, launch, test, test, test, and THEN switchover the URL.

smooches.

Right back atcha.

[technopatra]

<edited to correct date error>

OK we're going to hash out the rules and guidelines and some other stuff at the ETF meeting this Thursday. All are welcome to attend:

Thursday, 1/15/03
6:30pm - 9:30pm at BMHQ.
1900 - 3rd Street, SF
Call-in number for teleconference: 1-800-416-8128
Participant code: 246294

Agenda
-notes, LNT (2 min)
-intros (5 min)
-New skin review - Britton (15 min)
-Mods update - Spanky (20 min)
-Rules & Guidelines revisions/crafting - All (until we're done, dammit! read the packet first so you can be prepared)
1- sock puppets and usernames
2- age requirements
3- illegal activities
4- commerce
5- who owns content? property rights

Chinese food's on me. Please PM me with your email address if you want to participate so I can send you the discussion packet. Or if you just want the packet anyway (it's too big to post here).