MikeMcC399
commented
2 years ago @dsarkar announced on Aug 4, 2022 in https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/issues/4602#issuecomment-1205004898 that the team of @svengabr, @dsarkar & @larswmh would only be looking sporadically in August 2022. Since that time there have been no further posts from them. In practice this has meant that some inputs from the community have been picked up and actioned whereas other postings have not.
It would be good to hear what the future plans for the app are. Der Spiegel reported that the contract runs until the end of 2022 and BMG would like to extend to end of May 2023.
The Bundesregierung wrote in Zwei Jahre Corona-Warn-App: Erfolgreich und Vielfältig about the success of the app. Considerung the high numbers of downloads already reached (> 46 Million according to https://www.coronawarn.app/en/analysis/) there should still be an active community management in place until the app reaches end-of-life and is declared obsolete.
Hoping to hear back from a community management team soon again!
Ein-Tim
Dear Corona-Warn-App-Team, dear Open-Source-Team.
First of all, I want to make clear that this issue is not a personal attack against anyone! I appreciate the work the Open-Source-Team does and can only imagine the workload @svengabr, @dsarkar & @larswmh have! You're great guys, keep it up.
But still, there is something I find really annoying. Let's dive into this.
1. Assessing issues
On 18. Apr. 2022 I opened the PR https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/pull/4458 in the https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios repository. This PR was intended to address https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/578 which I opened on 07. Apr. 2021, so more than one year before I opened the PR. The PR was rejected, as the team considers the texts as correct. This is fine, I understand that there may be things the community considers as an issue, but the team does not (e.g. this). However, as the issue https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/issues/578 was opened more than a year ago, I would expect that there is an internal process to look at incoming issues, asses them, and if irrelevant/wont fix get this information back to GitHub & close the corresponding issue after explanation.
After the PR was closed I wrote this comment in the PR, as a response to @dsarkar telling me that the PR won't be merged.
In response, @dsarkar wrote in this comment:
That sounded good to me, however, I still responded that I think issues should be closed/assessed/fixed continuously, and not only when someone from the community comments on it or provides a PR.
@dsarkar answered that some issues snow under, especially if they are not critical. Ok, that's totally understandable!
So, that's my first point: Assess incoming issues on a regular basis, and not only mirror them to JIRA and let them sit there until you have to act, because e.g. the community provides a PR.
2. Communication between the community and the team
Now the second point, something that is not understandable. Following @dsarkar's comment to ping him or another Corona-Warn-App Open Source-Team member to get feedback on an issue before providing a PR, I did exactly this. In https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-website/issues/1319, an issue opened on 31.05.2021 by @dsarkar, I offered via https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-website/issues/1319#issuecomment-1098042184 to provide a PR. @dsarkar responded that this is appreciated, nice sounds good. In https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-website/issues/1319#issuecomment-1099994038 I presented my plan on what to do, to get feedback from the community & the team. After @MikeMcC399 pointed out why my plan may not be a good one, @MikeMcC399 and I came to the conclusion that we could not continue on this issue without feedback from the team. That was on 15. Apr. 2022, so ca. 1 1/2 months ago. In 1 1/2 months, nobody from the team came back to the issue, not even after 4 pings from @molarya1 & me (1, 2, 3, 4).
That's only one case, you might think. Yeah, this might be only one case, but at the very same time, a similar behavior can be seen in https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-website/issues/2751. After the community assessed the situation together with the Open Source-Team, @MikeMcC399 asked a good question on how to continue reg. the luca stand by, as it seems to have 0 influence on CWA users. Mikes comment is meanwhile one moth old, nobody ever responded to it, not even after I pinged @dsarkar three times (1, 2, 3).
So, my second point is If you want the community to contribute to this project, you have to work with it. Ignoring them until they go away is not a very intelligent move, as community members take workload off the team. If, for any reasons whatsoever, you're currently not able to assess the situation of an issue, comment this on the issue so the community does not feel ignored.
I really like the Corona-Warn-App, I love the great community, the open development process where community feedback is taken seriously and as a community member I have the feeling to be heard! Please take the two points I pointed out above as feedback where there is still room for improvements. Again: This is not an attack against anyone! This is not something personally but just something which disturbs my work on this project.
Thanks and have a nice Sunday.