New Xymon project administrator

[Henrik Størner]

It has been good to see the response to my messages last week.
Xymon sure isn't dead, judging from the response.

There are lots of issues being raised right now. Project management
stuff like where to host the project, what tools to use for tracking
bugs or accessing the code repository and so on. Frankly, I think
we must focus on getting the project re-activated with a new project
admin, and then let him decide the details of running it all.

We should aim for "evolution", not "revolution".

As I see things, the new project admin(s) will have to handle
the following tasks:

* Manage who has access to the source code repository. So new
  contributors can get access to commit code. That means the
  project admin must follow the discussions on the mailing list,
  because you should know people well enough to trust their
  contributions before giving the access to commit changes.
  Until you are sure that they deliver some quality code
  (at least, it doesn't break other developers' stuff!) then
  it is better to let them submit code to one of the more
  senior developers.
  It is a balance, because you don't want the senior developers
  to become a bottleneck ... but some code review by those
  familiar with Xymon will be needed. The developers
  mailing list will be a vital tool for this to discuss
  new contributions and development strategies.

* Maintain a list of feature requests and ideas for new versions.
  This probably also means planning which ideas go into the 
  next version, and which ones will just have to wait. This
  is difficult, because you have to have some vision of where
  we are going - and that is the stuff that flamewars are made of.

* Plan each release, i.e. keep track of what is missing before a
  release is done - both bugfixes and new features. This means
  you must decide when to "freeze" a branch in the code repository
  to let it stabilize, and also when a new development branch
  can be started.

* Do the release, but if you have handled the above tasks then that
  simply means flagging the code with the "release" tag, exporting
  a tar-file from the code repository and sending out the announcement.

Several persons have offered their assistance - working on some code,
writing documentation, translating. That is very encouraging, and 
I am sure your contributions will be welcome.

But we need someone to take care of managing it all, and after
careful consideration I have asked Buchan Milne to take on the
task of keeping the Xymon project alive. I am very pleased to 
announce that he has accepted.

Please join me in thanking Buchan for taking on this new role,
and do whatever you can to help him move the project forward.


Regards,
Henrik