Fwd: [whispersystems] Addressing Frustration in the Signal Community

Rayzer Rayzer at riseup.net
Wed Jan 20 07:57:10 PST 2016


[selector: 'strict'] > [outcome: 'frustration']

> ...run a tight ship, keeping strict
> control of the direction of the project, and fighting to maintain
> that. It's this strict process that...
GIGO.

-- 
RR

coderman wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Sam Lanning <sam at samlanning.com>
> Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2016 09:16:48 +0000
> Subject: [whispersystems] Addressing Frustration in the Signal Community
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have noticed that there has been some amount of frustration present
> on this mailing list as of late, and I'd just like to address it as a
> an observer and member of the Signal Community.
>
> The popularity of Signal, and in particular the number of people who
> want to help get involved in the project, contribute, help influence
> the future of it etc... has been growing very impressively. We have
> just under 1000 people on this mailing list (967 at time of writing),
> multiple PRs and issues are being opened in the repos by newcomers
> each day, and we have prominent people in the security community
> (Edward Snowden, Various Tor People, George Torwell [1] etc...)
> constantly telling everyone to use Signal.
>
> It's clear why this is happening, Signal is the only project to have
> emerged that really has the potential to put a dent in mass
> surveillance since Tor, and I use the word "only" on purpose here; Yes
> there are a million different privacy apps / projects that have
> emerged in the last 4 years or so, and existing tools have been
> improved (we have the likes of Tox, Pond, Ricochet etc... And OTR and
> PGP are still going strong), but Signal has always put a very strong
> focus on Usability and User Adoption, and it's these things that have
> lead it to becoming as widely adopted as it is, and it's these things
> we need to continue to focus on more than anything until it becomes as
> popular as, for example, Whatsapp. This is why it has the potential to
> put a dent in MASS surveillance.
>
> But this is obvious to most of you, in fact it is probably these
> reasons that have got you so excited about the project, and why we
> have so many people getting involved in the development of Signal, and
> contributing in any which way they can.
>
> That being said, I feel that the community doesn't realise just how
> big it's growing, and how that contrasts with the size of the OWS team
> itself. I have so much respect for them, they are each being pulled in
> a thousand different directions: development, managing + reviewing
> contributions on github, responding to issues, responding to support
> tickets, addressing each of the feature requests that come in (and
> deciding which ones they can take on etc...), handling PR / marketing
> / social media, corresponding with large projects that want to get
> involved and increase growth that drastically change the requirements
> for the infrastructure, managing and growing the infrastructure
> itself, managing finances and donations, general admin stuff, and of
> course... this mailing list.
>
> Go have a look at their website, to see how big their team is, and how
> many people are working on development (and also understand that
> Frederic Jacobs has recently moved on and the website is yet to be
> updated)... Then look again at this list of things that they need to
> handle among themselves.
>
> Also consider how amazingly Moxie has run a tight ship, keeping strict
> control of the direction of the project, and fighting to maintain
> that. It's this strict process that has lead Signal to where it is
> today. We can't let the project grow beyond this control, this strict
> direction that is vital to the steady, consistent, continual growth
> and success of the project, it can't be diluted... and yet growth is
> the single most important thing we're currently fighting for.
>
> This team is insane.
>
> So I ask you, please don't get frustrated, I know it can be difficult,
> and it can feel like you're shouting into the void, but we still need
> you, the community still needs everyone who's currently involved to
> stay as involved as they can and support one another. The
> whispersystems team reads each and every one of the emails that come
> through this mailing list, as insane as that may sound given the rest
> of their work load... they just don't have time to respond to
> everything, and they leave it up to us to do much of that.
>
> We need to work together, as a community, to help the OWS team grow
> this project into something even more fantastic then it is currently,
> rather than just increasing their workload, and taking their focus
> away from important development work and decision making. We each need
> to take a step back, and make calculated contributions, and help to
> make their life easier any way we can.
>
> So where, as a community, can we go from here...
>
> Well, the single most effective thing you could do, if you really want
> to make a difference, and are able to work in San Francisco, consider
> applying to work full time at OWS [2]. They need designers and
> developers alike.
>
> If like me, you're not in San Francisco, or even the USA, then you can
> continue to contribute online. Keep the morale up and continue doing
> what you're doing. Direct newcomers in the right directions (mailing
> list, issues, support, docs, the unofficial server support google
> group, etc...), and spread the word and try and get as many people to
> adopt Signal as possible.
>
> As a community, we can probably do with some better coordination as to
> what each of us are doing, assigning ourselves development tasks,
> doing code review, handling responding to people, discussing design /
> feature requests, working out as a community which features / work we
> feel are most critical etc... Feature requests, however well
> intentioned, do fill up this mailing list quite a bit, but there
> doesn't really seem like there is a proper (public) home for them at
> the moment, issues should be focussed on bugs / minor feature requests
> only, and sending an email to this list sends it to almost 1000
> people... not ideal.
>
> Perhaps there is the scope for some online space to handle / discuss
> feature requests / work in progress in an open manner? and perhaps
> allow the OWS team to be a little more transparent with the things
> they are currently working on etc... We could then also incorporate
> projects like the new windows phone initiative, and coordinate much
> more effectively? Anyway that's just food for thought, and probably
> best discussed another time.
>
> In the meantime, I'm probably going to write up some intro page for
> newcomers of the Signal community, to outline the landscape, and help
> direct their efforts. I'll post in here when that's done.
>
> Anyway, thanks for reading through this monster of an email! It was
> mostly a brain dump on my part. =)
>
> Oh! And make sure you watch the youtube video I linked below.
>
> Cheers,
> Sam
>
> ---------
> Links:
>
> [1]: https://youtu.be/c4EEa0HAqzQ?t=2m31s
> ^ watch this, really!
>
> [2]: https://whispersystems.org/workworkwork/
>



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