[Asterisk-Dev] Features requests on bugs.digium.com

[Darren Nickerson]

 > There is a feature requests category, however, rarely used.  Fact of the
> matter is, we need a system to actually tackle bugs and bug fixes, and 
> keep them seperate of feature enhancements/feature requests.

Or, you could listen to what people are fairly unanimously saying (thus far) 
...

Unless you're going to appoint a product manager whose full-time job it is 
to organize enhancements and feature requests into a "roadmap" and to 
marshall efforts to make those things happen, any effort to move these 
things out of Mantis is just going to grow a separate information repository 
that will go stale. Open source projects don't generally have anyone who's 
interested in doing this type of administrative grunt work, ... features and 
such will just get added as they're added as people find the motivation to 
add them, however bizarre their reasons ;-). People find motivation in the 
strangest places, and it's important that asterisk's development model helps 
absorb that momentum, instead of rebuking it or frustrating it.

You and bkw have actually already proven this point in your desire to move 
them out of Mantis. If major contributors like yourselves don't want to be 
bothered by these things, WHO WILL?? It's possible you have several 
volunteers who have approached you to focus on feature requests and you guys 
are just being proactive in trying to give them a tool to do their work, but 
I believe (from a year of lurking) that it's more likely that the bug 
marshals are sick of seeing things they can't do anything about, but which 
just sit there in the list, taunting them and making them feel like they're 
not making headway, ... so they want to move them to a 'special place'.

That special place needs to not be a graveyard.

You will no doubt recall the discussion at Astricon where the audience was 
asked what features needed to be added to asterisk ... that was a valuable 
exercise, no? You could be having that discussion with the whole world every 
day right there in Mantis if you allowed (and might I even suggest 
_encouraged_) feature requests. Imagine the wealth of information there for 
any aspiring developer who might go looking for things to do in Asterisk one 
rainy day. Even better, people can be having this conversation with one 
another without you ever needing to get involved! And it's documented for 
everyone to see and judge.

> Again,  don't be quick to make judgements and tell us how we should be 
> operating, if you're that concerned with it, get involved.

You do great work Josh and your contributions to Asterisk are valuable 
(possibly even vital), and without reproach. But emotional reactions like 
this still don't have any place here.

I'm not telling _anyone_ how to behave, ... I'm contributing my viewpoint 
(and whether you believe it or not my very relevant experience) to a public 
discussion in a public forum AT YOUR INVITATION. You may not approve of the 
way I choose to contribute, ... it's not 'working code' but it _IS_ a 
contribution nonetheless. Don't assume I just showed up here a few days ago, 
... we have disclaimers in with Digium, we've been following developments 
closely for nearly a year, and our company sent two people to Astricon.

I have the upmost repect for you and your viewpoint in this discussion Josh. 
However, I no longer understand why you and Brian brought this discussion 
to -devel. If you were looking for a rubber stamp on a controversial (and 
sometimes disenfranchising) development model, I don't think you're going to 
receive that. If you're genuinely open-minded and willing to listen to the 
viewpoints being shared with you, then I think no matter what the outcome, 
it will have been a useful discussion.

-Darren