[WikiEN-l] stable versions

[Steve Bennett]

On 9/9/07, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
> But in this one particular instance of the stable version feature, I
> must admit that I have become tremendously frustrated by how long
> something like this been promised but not delivered. I don't expect it's
> any specific person's fault, perhaps just a systemic problem resulting
> from the crossover of the software development side and the editor side
> of decision-making processes, but from the outside it's not obvious what
> the holdup is.

The real problem is the lack of a product manager as such - that is,
no one to communicate with the outside world, manage expectations etc.
I've asked several times for the actual specification document for
this feature, but haven't seen anything yet. It's one of the problems
with OSS in general: people will implement what they feel like
implementing, when they feel like it, and they don't take kindly to
being pressured. Perfectly understandable for volunteers.

But it's a pain for us, because we've been publicly talking about this
feature that's going to save Wikipedia, but we're in the dark about
its actual progress.

(Of course, I don't actually believe that stable versions is a good
idea, nor will it "save Wikipedia". But I'm interested in its progress
nonetheless.)

Steve