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dw-progress: 23 February 2009
We encourage everyone to keep ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
dw_news on their Reading List. There's also dw_volunteers for volunteer opportunies and project coordination, and dw_lounge, where project leaders and site owners can post some behind-the-scenes looks.
We've more or less been working our little tails off this week, so let's go straight to the videotape!
1. CODE PROGRESS
Our big progress this week was in the realm of code cleanup -- so much so that only giving it one item on the progress list doesn't quite convey the level of energy we spent on it this week. Our beta testers have been chewing steadily through their tests, and they caught and logged a bunch of bugs -- bugs we introduced, bugs we inherited, bugs relating our configurations, you name it.
We resolved 56 bugs this week, ranging from the simple two-line fixes to the more complex issues that required us to spend a considerable amount of time dignosing them and tracking down what the problem might be. In the process, we also incorporated a lot of feedback from the testers for things that weren't precisely bugs, but which were minor -- or major -- usability problems, as well as improving the site experience for people who are logged into OpenID accounts.
This brings our 'resolved' total up to 161 items so far, which is something I think we can all celebrate. While we're nowhere near out of the woods yet -- we still have 51 bugs that block open beta (although only 46 without patches-that-need-reviewing), and we keep adding to that tally about as much as we keep knocking it down, it's still a good sign that we're making incredible progress.
If you're interested in seeing what we patched this week, you can see that here.
2. KEEPING UP
Thanks to Mark, you can now follow along with our code commits directly on Dreamwidth itself:
changelog
That'll give you a record of every commit we make to our code repository, for easy perusal. Even if you don't speak perl, you can still view the link back to the associated Bugzilla ticket and read up on the problem that each patch solves.
3. LOAD TESTING (IMPROMPTU)
While one of our testers was working to test what happens when you hit the entry comment limit (it works, by the way), we conducted a slightly impromptu load test on our hardware setup -- the strain of a bunch of people viewing and commenting all at once -- and we're pretty happy with how it held up -- especially considering that we're running with something like a tenth (or less) of the resources we're going to have by the time we launch to open beta. Mark and I kept looking at each other and expressing abject astonishment that the site hadn't yet fallen over under load. (This is, perhaps, a less-than-politic thing to admit, but we're just that kind of company.)
So, rest assured that we're already gathering data about what kind of hardware we're going to need for open-beta launch. And the really nice thing about the setup we're using -- since we're not ready to move to colocation yet, and probably won't be for at least the length of open beta -- is that we can add more resources to the problem in as little as fifteen minutes, so once we launch to open beta, if we start hitting site slowdowns due to lack of resources, we can correct the problem with a few clicks.
As we proceed through closed beta, we'll be slowly adding more people to the closed-beta list, based roughly on who's been contributing to the project, to help us load test further.
4. DATELINE: OPEN BETA
The most common question we're getting right now is: so, when will you be launching to open beta?
Right now, we can't answer that exactly, as we're still working through our list of open-beta-blocking bugs. However, I can say that our current target for open-beta launch -- the point at which we'll be issuing invite codes to everyone who's been sticking with us through this wild ride, giving our closed-beta testers invite codes of their own to give out, and opening up account payments to those who'd like to help financially support the site, not to mention selling our batch of Seed Accounts -- is still sometime in mid-April. While we aren't yet comfortable in setting a specific date, we'd be really surprised if we slip much past the end of April -- at this point, it'd pretty much take discovering a massive problem that we need considerable time to diagnose and repair. (She says, thus blithely inviting the universe to spontaneously manifest one.)
We'll keep you all updated as we get closer to setting an exact target date.
5. SITE COPY
If you're interested in helping to rewrite the site copy (the text that appears on the site), Rho is still building the site copy team. Instructions on how to apply can be found on the Wiki.
If you have any questions about the process, or need further clarification, feel free to contact![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rho.
6. GET INVOLVED
While the majority of our focus from here on out to open beta is going to be code-related, there are still some non-code-related tasks to be done!
dw-accessibility: The mailing list to plan Dreamwidth's accessibility features for people with particular needs such as screenreader-friendliness, keyboard-navigation friendliness, etc. The project leader for this project is rickybuchanan.
dw-docs: The mailing list for Dreamwidth's documentation (dw_docs). The documentation (FAQ) team is already hard at work, but this mailing list is also for people who are interested in working with the site copy team and people who are interested in doing proofreading. The project leader for this project is rho.
Call for mood themes: If you, or anybody you know, has a mood theme that's all your own artwork and you're interested in licensing the mood theme to Dreamwidth for site inclusion, contact me.
Finally, there's still the process of mining the LiveJournal suggestions community for useful and valid suggestions that may contribute to the Dreamwidth project. The From LJ Suggestions Wiki page has details.
If you have something that you think would fit into Dreamwidth, you can leave it on one of the Wishlist pages for now.
Once we launch into open beta, we'll have an official "submit a suggestion" process, where you can bring your suggestions to the community and to us for consideration. In the meantime, though, we're tracking them on the Wiki so we don't lose anybody's ideas.
7. TALK TO US!
Though it's been quiet as we've been bugstomping, the dw-discuss mailing list is your place to go for questions, comments, ideas, and discussion.
For once-daily (more or less) updates on what-we-did-today, check out our Dreamwidth Twitter account.
For more real-time discussion, commentary, and the ability to consign things to hell -- or at least, to our irc bot "hEll" -- come join us
in irc:
irc.dwscoalition.org, port 6667, channel #dw
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Fulsome praises for all our volunteer coders who've been coding their little fingers off this week? Email me at denise@dwscoalition.org, or comment here. We'll see you next Monday with more news from the frontlines.
dw_news on their Reading List. There's also dw_volunteers for volunteer opportunies and project coordination, and dw_lounge, where project leaders and site owners can post some behind-the-scenes looks.We've more or less been working our little tails off this week, so let's go straight to the videotape!
1. CODE PROGRESS
Our big progress this week was in the realm of code cleanup -- so much so that only giving it one item on the progress list doesn't quite convey the level of energy we spent on it this week. Our beta testers have been chewing steadily through their tests, and they caught and logged a bunch of bugs -- bugs we introduced, bugs we inherited, bugs relating our configurations, you name it.
We resolved 56 bugs this week, ranging from the simple two-line fixes to the more complex issues that required us to spend a considerable amount of time dignosing them and tracking down what the problem might be. In the process, we also incorporated a lot of feedback from the testers for things that weren't precisely bugs, but which were minor -- or major -- usability problems, as well as improving the site experience for people who are logged into OpenID accounts.
This brings our 'resolved' total up to 161 items so far, which is something I think we can all celebrate. While we're nowhere near out of the woods yet -- we still have 51 bugs that block open beta (although only 46 without patches-that-need-reviewing), and we keep adding to that tally about as much as we keep knocking it down, it's still a good sign that we're making incredible progress.
If you're interested in seeing what we patched this week, you can see that here.
2. KEEPING UP
Thanks to Mark, you can now follow along with our code commits directly on Dreamwidth itself:
changelogThat'll give you a record of every commit we make to our code repository, for easy perusal. Even if you don't speak perl, you can still view the link back to the associated Bugzilla ticket and read up on the problem that each patch solves.
3. LOAD TESTING (IMPROMPTU)
While one of our testers was working to test what happens when you hit the entry comment limit (it works, by the way), we conducted a slightly impromptu load test on our hardware setup -- the strain of a bunch of people viewing and commenting all at once -- and we're pretty happy with how it held up -- especially considering that we're running with something like a tenth (or less) of the resources we're going to have by the time we launch to open beta. Mark and I kept looking at each other and expressing abject astonishment that the site hadn't yet fallen over under load. (This is, perhaps, a less-than-politic thing to admit, but we're just that kind of company.)
So, rest assured that we're already gathering data about what kind of hardware we're going to need for open-beta launch. And the really nice thing about the setup we're using -- since we're not ready to move to colocation yet, and probably won't be for at least the length of open beta -- is that we can add more resources to the problem in as little as fifteen minutes, so once we launch to open beta, if we start hitting site slowdowns due to lack of resources, we can correct the problem with a few clicks.
As we proceed through closed beta, we'll be slowly adding more people to the closed-beta list, based roughly on who's been contributing to the project, to help us load test further.
4. DATELINE: OPEN BETA
The most common question we're getting right now is: so, when will you be launching to open beta?
Right now, we can't answer that exactly, as we're still working through our list of open-beta-blocking bugs. However, I can say that our current target for open-beta launch -- the point at which we'll be issuing invite codes to everyone who's been sticking with us through this wild ride, giving our closed-beta testers invite codes of their own to give out, and opening up account payments to those who'd like to help financially support the site, not to mention selling our batch of Seed Accounts -- is still sometime in mid-April. While we aren't yet comfortable in setting a specific date, we'd be really surprised if we slip much past the end of April -- at this point, it'd pretty much take discovering a massive problem that we need considerable time to diagnose and repair. (She says, thus blithely inviting the universe to spontaneously manifest one.)
We'll keep you all updated as we get closer to setting an exact target date.
5. SITE COPY
If you're interested in helping to rewrite the site copy (the text that appears on the site), Rho is still building the site copy team. Instructions on how to apply can be found on the Wiki.
If you have any questions about the process, or need further clarification, feel free to contact
rho.6. GET INVOLVED
While the majority of our focus from here on out to open beta is going to be code-related, there are still some non-code-related tasks to be done!
dw-accessibility: The mailing list to plan Dreamwidth's accessibility features for people with particular needs such as screenreader-friendliness, keyboard-navigation friendliness, etc. The project leader for this project is rickybuchanan.
dw-docs: The mailing list for Dreamwidth's documentation (
dw_docs). The documentation (FAQ) team is already hard at work, but this mailing list is also for people who are interested in working with the site copy team and people who are interested in doing proofreading. The project leader for this project is rho.Call for mood themes: If you, or anybody you know, has a mood theme that's all your own artwork and you're interested in licensing the mood theme to Dreamwidth for site inclusion, contact me.
Finally, there's still the process of mining the LiveJournal suggestions community for useful and valid suggestions that may contribute to the Dreamwidth project. The From LJ Suggestions Wiki page has details.
If you have something that you think would fit into Dreamwidth, you can leave it on one of the Wishlist pages for now.
Once we launch into open beta, we'll have an official "submit a suggestion" process, where you can bring your suggestions to the community and to us for consideration. In the meantime, though, we're tracking them on the Wiki so we don't lose anybody's ideas.
7. TALK TO US!
Though it's been quiet as we've been bugstomping, the dw-discuss mailing list is your place to go for questions, comments, ideas, and discussion.
For once-daily (more or less) updates on what-we-did-today, check out our Dreamwidth Twitter account.
For more real-time discussion, commentary, and the ability to consign things to hell -- or at least, to our irc bot "hEll" -- come join us
in irc:
irc.dwscoalition.org, port 6667, channel #dw
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Fulsome praises for all our volunteer coders who've been coding their little fingers off this week? Email me at denise@dwscoalition.org, or comment here. We'll see you next Monday with more news from the frontlines.