Suggestion

[Matt12345]

First off, Happy Birthday 2.2. Secondly, I have been following many of the "when is it going to come out" posts, and realize that many people are anxious for a long awaited release. Personally, I downloaded my first copy of phpBB at the beginning of the summer, so I havne't been waiting as long as some people here. While many of the posts ask for a date, some have been asking for extensive documentation, read access to dev e-mails, and such. My suggestion, which would not take a considerable amount of time, would be for the devs to come up with a list of the 10 or 15 major things left before 2.1.2 hits 2.2 beta, and post it in the "Announcements" section. Seeing that they check the Area51 forums regularly, posting as things get accomplished (i.e. #10 - completed) would both allow people to know what is being done and approx how close we are to beta. I realize that some of the things will take longer than others, but it will at least give people an idea of where things stand, and would be a fair compromise between all the people who want to know what is happening and the devs, who are working really hard and taking time out of their lives to provide us with a quality product.

-Matt

[Wert]

If folks want to monitor the progress, they can watch this forum or download/install a snapshot.

With time at a premium for the devs right now, I can't say I'm fond of the thought of them wasting large portions of it to keep people apprised who can't be bothered to try the snapshots or watch what is going on in cvs.

[Matt12345]

I wsan't suggesting that they spend extraordinary amounts of time to keep people informed. The problem with watching things being checked into CVS is that people don't have an idea of what is yet to be accomplished. All it lets people know is that progress was made. I'm sure the dev's have some sort of internal roadmap. All I'm suggesting is that they condense that into 10-15 major headings of stuff to be done, which would take 10-15 minutes of copy/paste into a post into the announcements section, and as things get completed, they post something like "Number 10 is now completed", which could be done in 15 seconds, and can be done while they check this forum. That way people can see how many more major things need to be done until completion, and would vastly cut down on unwanted "are we there yet?" posts.

[Matt12345]

In fact, such a list as I was suggesting already exists: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=131610. All they would have to do is put that in the announcements section (and modify it to match the internal list if things were changed), and put done next to the things as they get done.

[Wert]

It takes time. They don't have much time.

Would you rather that precious time be spent making useless lists or actually getting some work done toward finishing the software.

The devs do give a heads up from time to time and your suggestion just isn't a new or useful one.

Please take time (by checking out cvs or perhaps downloading a snapshot) to find this information for yourself rather than expect others to do it for you.

Or if you feel there must be a list, subscribe to cvs and post every little change up somewhere to keep people happy.

[Matt12345]

I know that the devs are short on time and I give them soooo much credit for all of the great work that they do. And although I am not subscribed to the CVS sheckins, I check them at least once every-other day. I think that what most people are complaining of is that we don't know what is left to be completed. We can all read CVS checkin notices to see what is getting accomplished, but since the Devs have taken down the roadmap and have stated that their internal roadmap changes from time to time, we don't see an end in sight. We all know that there is work being done, and we can see what is being done thought the check-ins, but we have no idea if something that is fixed/added is the second to last major feature to be completed or the 1000th from last. I think the time to come up with a list of 10-15 things is neglible, would keep the community in the loop, and would stop annoying daily posts on how much longer the devolpment cycle will last.

[SamG]

The community isn't being kept out of the loop. Honest. The developers are working hard as time permits and the original roadmap is no longer valid in any way. Things are still somewhat fluid in terms of exactly what features orignally intended for 2.2 will be deferred for later versions.

This is as in the loop as it gets, at this point.

[psoTFX]

As Sam says ... the suggestion amongst some that we're specifically "hiding" information on progress or the final release is absurd. I still have no date in mind for the release of 2.2.0 and due to my workload and other issues I've still not finalised 100% the remaining todo list.

I can say there is a tentative schedule I'm going to try and impose to get the beta out by late January/early February. Beyond that the users will dictate the schedule till RC2 with the discovery of bugs and other issues and the finalising of permissions, styling and one or two other elements.

Don't make me regret saying what I've said here guys ... if we should miss that date (which as Sam also says happened this year for very real and unfortunate causes) and this board sees posts such as the "2004 ... year of phpBB 2.2" it'll be the last you'll here on 2.2 till it's released

[APTX]

With time at a premium for the devs right now, I can't say I'm fond of the thought of them wasting large portions of it to keep people apprised who can't be bothered to try the snapshots or watch what is going on in cvs.

Maybe if the devs had better cheerleaders... ok, ok! Don't look at me like that.

[cyberCrank]

I can say there is a tentative schedule I'm going to try and impose to get the beta out by late January/early February. Beyond that the users will dictate the schedule till RC2 with the discovery of bugs and other issues and the finalising of permissions, styling and one or two other elements.

Don't make me regret saying what I've said here guys ...

Your post made my day! You guys sharing this is greatly appreciated and surely understood if any beta comes sooner or later and hopefully others will read your post, absorb it, and respect and understand the possibility of mitigating circumstance should they arise. There are so many nice things already in the 2.1.2 CVS snapshots and it just keeps getting better, and better, and then beta will come and be awesome; looking forward to it all very much...

Getting this information (even knowing it can & may likely change some) is like getting a little "present" for Christmas and relief in some respect. If you guys over there celebrate Christmas and the holidays like we do, then we're wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!