I’m curious about how you guys feel about the situation the active committers of jME2 currently finds themselves in. We know for a fact there has been minor advances towards shifts in management, where people have openly shown the will to assume a greater commitment as someone the whole community will forever more have some expectations from, but sadly with lacking results.
I think these ‘willing’ people, old and new, are still out there. Question is, if they step up to a bigger commitment, will the community accept it, and see it as a change for the better? I’m definitely interested in knowing more about which active committers and contributors otherwise are interested in signing up for a ‘team’, so if you want to just talk about possibilities and effects of this, e-mail me.
I don’t want to start any ‘sign-ups’ in this thread though. Here, I would like to hear back from the great active majority, in regards to what type of management you see being in the best interest for jME2, all considered.
Me, I’m a ‘tight project’ kind of guy. When I take an active part in a project, core involvement or just casual, I like there to be some select few people who can easily be identified as the most involved members of this project, hence they know the ins and outs of it better than anyone else, and when a decision needs making, they will either have sufficient trust and respect in the community, and self-confidence, to make quick internal decisions or voice their suggestions clearly enough to the active community so that a consensus may be reached shortly after the initiation of dialogue.
Right now the community has done a fantastic job working diligently together without any need of supportive management. However, what would happen if say a Sun advocate wanted inquire about a prospective project based on jME2? Would me and Momoko_Fan do the talking? Would the advocate have to try and nail down the most influential jME2 contributor himself? Would the midst of the jME2 community just know who would be most suitable for the task if someone, be it the Sun advocate or just a member, opened a thread to debate it?
I’ve made my points. Debate! XD
Well, from the top of my head I would have said that Momoko_Fan, darkfrog and Core_Dump are the big players. With darkfrog gone …, well, looking at the SVN change history I think that additional big players are developing :)
Still, when it comes to "representing" i dont know who shall be the successor to renanse.
EDIT: Oh, btw, what do I have to do to get me some more and shiny stars like yours erlend_sh? :x (just kidding)
I agree with dhdd about the choice of big players, I also notice blaine.dev, the guys of Wonderland, mulova and christoph.luder submit a lot of things too. I only take care of the JOGL/AWT side and I submit only a few small but impacting fixes. On my view, Momoko_Fan or Core_Dump could represent us.
dhdd said:Exactly. When time goes by and if by then I still haven't heard from any prospective developers, I'll know who to poke :wink:
(...) well, looking at the SVN change history I think that additional big players are developing
Still, when it comes to "representing" i dont know who shall be the successor to renanse.Well, I see 'representing' jME3 happening like this: Momoko_Fan can make independent decisions for the code, but commonly he'd want to consult with other people he knows and trusts, while keeping to a closed circle. Finally, the community can (and usually would) be brought in to come to a greater consensus. As its an open license and he's the only developer so far, he can do just about anything he'd like, but things change (and impending changes become carefully and frequently considered and re-considered) when you have an entire community being affected by your every move.
I imagine a similar structure taking shape for jME2, just that the 'main developers' would be more plentiful (which should soon be the case for jME3 as well). I do believe that aside the need for at least one 'main' jME2 developer, there needs to be an additional manager (as in mainly doing administrative tasks rather than programming) for the jME2 branch; someone whom I would probably work closely with.
In regards to representing jME as a whole, a project, engine and community, I can't possibly see how that would be done by one person alone, but rather for instance all of the main developers together across both branches.
gouessej said:
... the guys of Wonderland, mulova and christoph.luder submit...
christoph.luder would be me :)
I like to help troubleshoot and help with patches where i can, but i can't/don't want to invest more time than i do now.
The Wonderland guys work on their own branch, i don't know if these changes can be merged someday.
The point of this thread which erlend_sh pointed to, was mostly to have a stable and a snapshot release available for download the the google page site, but as you can see it the last downloadable release is from Jan 23.
The 'stable' release should be from 16.April
Now with a new dedicated server, i think we should remove the downloadable releases from google code, and instead point to a hudson set up where those releases can be get from.
Core-Dump said:I think the amount of time you are investing right now is considerable enough to deem you a 'developer'. It's not so much that there are extra tasks of this and that lying around that only a 'developer' can sort out, but rather there is some decision-making and sensitive discussion happening that would greatly benefit from some trusted and highly involved members of the community. You are one of them :)
I like to help troubleshoot and help with patches where i can, but i can't/don't want to invest more time than i do now.
Yes I've been in touch with some of them already, and they seemed very willing to do just that some time soon.
The Wonderland guys work on their own branch, i don't know if these changes can be merged someday.
Now with a new dedicated server, i think we should remove the downloadable releases from google code, and instead point to a hudson set up where those releases can be get from.Yep, that's true. I hope it will be easy to come to a consensus regarding the use of Hudson though :) Also, though I have the login to Lunarpages now, it seems I have a phonecall to make before it's final... Then only can we start to think about migrating to the new dedicated server.
I contributed a bugfix once :mrgreen:
EDIT: And for that I want a pirate ship and crew, please!
Trussell said:Heh, that is a modest start on the road to 'committer' status, but I think we should find a way to make 'acrediting by recognition' a bit more flexible, seeing as you and several others definitely deserve great kudos for a) making games that build on the engines credibility and promotes it, and b) creating tools and assets under the jME label.
I contributed a bugfix once :D
I'll consider setting up more advanced groups when we get upgraded to SMF 2.0, because that'll mean more advanced group functions (no worries, won't make a mess of it!)
EDIT: And for that I want a pirate ship and crew, please!Signed up for that ship looong ago and still waiting matey, get in line... There be no freebies here, yarr!
Oh I was just being a booger. I didn't expect anything major for my one commit. However, I'm thinking about writing a networking library of my own, and then maybe we can integrate that directly into jME?
Since Darkfrog is taking a step back, I fear that JGN support may become more sketchy than we as a community would like. Also, seeing as JGN is developed for any application and that it's jME support comes through special code, I think by writing a networking abstraction layer and including that directly in jME we could offer some really awesome support. Maybe once I do that I'll deserve something 
Trussell said:
I think by writing a networking abstraction layer and including that directly in jME we could offer some really awesome support.
No don't reinvent the wheel, JGN is just fine.
I'd like to be kept in the loop about build system, Subversion integration, and development conventions. I have refactored important aspects of the first two and am the author of the last.
blaine said:Will do. Actually, I need your input right now!
I'd like to be kept in the loop about build system, Subversion integration, and development conventions. I have refactored important aspects of the first two and am the author of the last.