Low level community

[Lewis John Mcgibbney]

Hi Folks,
community@ is the orrect place for this question.
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis

* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.

[jan i]

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
Hi Folks,
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?

marketing :-) Make other committers interested in your project, e.g. by
having a nice homepage, where it is easy to see how the reader can help
your project and if there are projects related to your project, mail a
polite question on their ML.

rgds
jan I.

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis
* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.
--
*Lewis*

[Ross Gardler]

Keep working and make sure people know about your project. You can only attract devs by a) having something of value to then and b) ensuring they know about it. It takes effort and patience.

Identify the most common use case for your code (today that is whatever keeps you involved), write a tutorial, blog, tweet, present, demo. Improve support for the use case, update tutorial, blog, tweet, demo etc. Rinse and repeat.

One last thing, talk to yourself. That is tell the community (that is any lurkers) what you are doing, why and how. Ask for input, testing, contributions. It might feel like a waste of time if there is never a response, but one day there might be.

Sent from my phone - please forgive brevity and typos

-----Original Message-----
From: "jan i" <jani-1oDqGaOF3Lkdnm+***@public.gmane.org>
Sent: ‎6/‎28/‎2014 2:28
To: "community-1oDqGaOF3Lkdnm+***@public.gmane.org" <community-1oDqGaOF3Lkdnm+***@public.gmane.org>
Subject: Re: Low level community






On 28 June 2014 11:09, Lewis John Mcgibbney <lewis.mcgibbney-***@public.gmane.org> wrote:

Hi Folks,

community@ is the orrect place for this question.

What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community, generally speaking low level anything on a project?



marketing :-) Make other committers interested in your project, e.g. by having a nice homepage, where it is easy to see how the reader can help your project and if there are projects related to your project, mail a polite question on their ML.


rgds
jan I.

I am NOT talking about the attic.

I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.

Lewis



* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.

[Andy Seaborne]

I think that a project that has a low level of activity is fine. As
long as it can do its board reports to show that there is some level of
monitoring, and that the PMC believes it can get the necessary 3 votes
(with adequate notice) then so be it. Some software (eventually!)
works. That software is still be valuable to the users.

With a large number of TLPs, some are going to be in this state. Not
attic-worthy, still useful, minimal active development.

Andy

Post by Ross Gardler
Keep working and make sure people know about your project. You can only
attract devs by a) having something of value to then and b) ensuring
they know about it. It takes effort and patience.
Identify the most common use case for your code (today that is whatever
keeps you involved), write a tutorial, blog, tweet, present, demo.
Improve support for the use case, update tutorial, blog, tweet, demo
etc. Rinse and repeat.
One last thing, talk to yourself. That is tell the community (that is
any lurkers) what you are doing, why and how. Ask for input, testing,
contributions. It might feel like a waste of time if there is never a
response, but one day there might be.
Sent from my phone - please forgive brevity and typos
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent: ‎6/‎28/‎2014 2:28
Subject: Re: Low level community
Hi Folks,
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?
marketing :-) Make other committers interested in your project, e.g. by
having a nice homepage, where it is easy to see how the reader can help
your project and if there are projects related to your project, mail a
polite question on their ML.
rgds
jan I.
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis
* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.
--
/Lewis/

[Bertrand Delacretaz]

Hi,

...With a large number of TLPs, some are going to be in this state. Not
attic-worthy, still useful, minimal active development...

Agreed - and from the board's point of view it's good for such
projects to mention in their reports that although their activity is
minimal, they do have at least 3 active PMC members who can step in
when needed. If that's the case, low activity and small communities
are fine.

-Bertrand

[Sam Ruby]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 7:27 AM, Bertrand Delacretaz

Post by Bertrand Delacretaz
Hi,

...With a large number of TLPs, some are going to be in this state. Not
attic-worthy, still useful, minimal active development...

Agreed - and from the board's point of view it's good for such
projects to mention in their reports that although their activity is
minimal, they do have at least 3 active PMC members who can step in
when needed. If that's the case, low activity and small communities
are fine.

+1

I've added a note to this affect to the "Describe the overall activity
in the project over the past quarter." bullet in

http://www.apache.org/foundation/board/reporting

Post by Bertrand Delacretaz
-Bertrand

- Sam Ruby

[Santiago Gala]

On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 11:09 AM, Lewis John Mcgibbney <

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
Hi Folks,
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?

Other ideas worth exploring (I'm not sure what kind of project you talk
about):
* ensure that parts of the project worth separate use are packaged
separately, so that people can feel compelled to use, and improve/maintain,
them. Again, you need to publisize them
* See if your project have "reinvented wheels", i.e. parts that can be
easily replaced with off the shelf components and that are adding no value
(say a template engine with no special value, present because of historical
reasons). If this is the case, maintenance can be simplified by
substituting them with well-maintained components

Regards
Santiago

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis
* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.
--
*Lewis*

[Henri Yandell]

+1 to the decoupling part. The bigger the bump to join in, the less people
will join.

Other important items imo:

* What is the value of your project? Is it valuable? Who is it valuable to?
What is the larger community it is related to and what are the trends in
that community? Are you also trending the same way? Basically put on a
devil advocate hat, and try to convince yourself that your project is worth
using.
* Once you've identified where that larger community is, tweet to them (or
other communication method). A quiet but constant monologue, a heartbeat. I
think communities get the heartbeat at the gut level, a project whose
heartbeat can't be heard is assumed to be dead. You need to establish that
beat.
* Communicate todo items too. If your community is full of hard core
hackers, send out the gnarly problems while you fix the build. If, more
typically, your project hides the painful and makes life easier for users,
then typically you would send out the simpler issues while you deal with
the gnarly.

I wonder if the Attic needs a page on "Staying out of the Attic" :)

Hen

Post by Santiago Gala
On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 11:09 AM, Lewis John Mcgibbney <

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
Hi Folks,
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?

Other ideas worth exploring (I'm not sure what kind of project you talk
* ensure that parts of the project worth separate use are packaged
separately, so that people can feel compelled to use, and improve/maintain,
them. Again, you need to publisize them
* See if your project have "reinvented wheels", i.e. parts that can be
easily replaced with off the shelf components and that are adding no value
(say a template engine with no special value, present because of historical
reasons). If this is the case, maintenance can be simplified by
substituting them with well-maintained components
Regards
Santiago

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis
* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.
--
*Lewis*

[Rich Bowen]

Post by Henri Yandell
I wonder if the Attic needs a page on "Staying out of the Attic" :)

That's a great idea. While there are a number of good, positive reasons for
entering the attic, some projects slip there because they don't know how to
attract new interest.

[Rich Bowen]

Post by Lewis John Mcgibbney
Hi Folks,
What do we* do when we have low level activity, low level community,
generally speaking low level anything on a project?
I am NOT talking about the attic.
I am committed to ensuring the project is NOT going to the attic.
Lewis
* in the collective sense. Your, I, Us, Etc.

Although the answers you received from the board perspective ("low level
activity is fine") is correct, strictly speaking, from the perspective
of the ASF, the larger question is one which consumes many books,
websites, and conferences. Indeed many projects employ a full-time
Community Manager to answer the question.

Ross's answer has many of the elements of the day-to-day job of a
community manager, or one that is shared by the whole community when you
don't have someone to do it full time.

Encourage people to blog about what they do on the project - even the
mundane things. What seems every-day to a project developer may be what
a beginner needs to get more involved. It doesn't have to be something
new and amazing, but just a daily chore or how to install or how to do
the *normal* things done by your project.

Be sure you answer the "what does it do" question thoroughly, including
user stories of how people use it.

Tweet about it when you do a new release, a new feature, a new event, or
whatever. Get the word out. /cc @theASF on the tweet, so that more of us
see it and retweet it. Email the users@ list about every new
development. Be excited about things and it will be catching.

Find other people talking about your project and encourage them to come
talk about it at ApacheCon, on your mailing lists, on your Twitter, on
Facebook.

[Jan Matèrne]

When you are blogging, don't forget to register your blog for
http://planet.apache.org/committers/

by adding a new paragraph in
http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/planet/committers.ini so it become more
popular.



Jan