In-person developers meeting/hackfest

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rah
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In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#1 Post by rah »

Hi, I was wondering if you guys ever meet in person? I searched the forum but I couldn't find anything obvious. In my experience, meeting in person can be extremely productive and positive for a project as a whole and there seems to be an absence here.

Would anyone be interesting in attending a meeting or hackfest? Does anyone attend FOSDEM? Would anyone be willing to attend a specific FreeOrion hackfest if one were organised? For example:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Hackfest/Paris2019
https://wiki.gnome.org/Hackfests/Fractal2018
https://www.jenkins.io/blog/2016/08/03/ ... -4-report/
https://siliconislandblog.wordpress.com ... -hackfest/
https://blog.gtk.org/2020/02/17/gtk-hac ... ssibility/
https://wiki.gnome.org/Hackfests

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adrian_broher
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#2 Post by adrian_broher »

> Hi, I was wondering if you guys ever meet in person?

Not that I am aware of.

> In my experience, meeting in person can be extremely productive and positive for a project as a whole and there seems to be an absence here.

What is `extremly productive` about investing traveling time (wasted time) and expenses (for any reasonable meeting this will become a multi-day endeavour with hotel costs, renting a meeting room) for a limited time meeting? You cannot expect this to be stemmed by anybody for a tiny project like this.

> Would anyone be interesting in attending a meeting or hackfest?

Maybe, but not for FreeOrion exclusively. Also most of the relevant stuff from such meetings is published anyway in some way or another (video records, slides, code) anyway so why invest the effort of traveling?

> Would anyone be willing to attend a specific FreeOrion hackfest if one were organised?

Are you really comparing projects with 50 to 100 company backed core contributors with a hobbyist project with maybe 5 to 6 regular contributors?
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em3
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#3 Post by em3 »

Not to mention the epidemic situation.
https://github.com/mmoderau
[...] for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane. - Randall Munroe, title text to xkcd #556

rah
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#4 Post by rah »

adrian_broher wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:14 am > In my experience, meeting in person can be extremely productive and positive for a project as a whole and there seems to be an absence here.

What is `extremly productive` about investing traveling time (wasted time) and expenses (for any reasonable meeting this will become a multi-day endeavour with hotel costs, renting a meeting room) for a limited time meeting?
Face-to-face communication is orders of magnitude more effective than communication over the Internet. At present, developers communicate using these forums, IRC, etc. Communication channels already exist. An in-person meeting would be another communication channel.

Oh yes, and it's fun!
adrian_broher wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:14 am You cannot expect this to be stemmed by anybody for a tiny project like this.
I have no expectation.
adrian_broher wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:14 am why invest the effort of traveling?
That's a question of personal motivation. I would be motivated. Clearly you would not. This is OK :-)

adrian_broher wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:14 am > Would anyone be willing to attend a specific FreeOrion hackfest if one were organised?

Are you really comparing projects with 50 to 100 company backed core contributors with a hobbyist project with maybe 5 to 6 regular contributors?
No.
Last edited by rah on Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:37 am, edited 2 times in total.

rah
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#5 Post by rah »

em3 wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:27 am Not to mention the epidemic situation.
That's temporary though.

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em3
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#6 Post by em3 »

rah wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:32 am
adrian_broher wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:14 am why invest the effort of traveling?
That's a question of personal motivation. I would be motivated. Clearly you would not. This is OK :-)
I daresay it's a question of priorities rather than motivation. It's hard for me to talk for FreeOrion team, as I only got one PR in master before windows CMake build stopped working, but I think it's mostly a hobby thing for most.

People have responsibilities. Work, kids. It's hard to imagine for me traveling to (for example) Germany for a couple hours of bashing the keyboard together instead of using the money to take my daughter on a weekend trip somewhere. And I do have a group of friends I used to develop stuff together with. Life gets in the way (especially if you let it).
https://github.com/mmoderau
[...] for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane. - Randall Munroe, title text to xkcd #556

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The Silent One
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#7 Post by The Silent One »

Vezzra and I had mused about a "FO-Con" a while back, meaning a weekend-spanning (?) event. While meeting in person may not betremendously productive, at least it would be very fun. However, I don't see myself being able to take charge of organising such a thing anytime soon. But I would attend for sure!
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rah
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#8 Post by rah »

The Silent One wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:14 am Vezzra and I had mused about a "FO-Con" a while back, meaning a weekend-spanning (?) event. While meeting in person may not betremendously productive, at least it would be very fun. However, I don't see myself being able to take charge of organising such a thing anytime soon. But I would attend for sure!
Where do you and Vezzra reside? I wouldn't mind taking charge of organising an event. I could get a good venue in Liverpool, UK without cost:

https://doesliverpool.com/services/host ... wn-events/

But perhaps it would be better to have it on the (European) continent if most of the people who are interested live there? Or perhaps in the US?

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#9 Post by Geoff the Medio »

I would suggest arranging online group voice chats before an in-person meeting is considered, for various reasons similar to those mentioned above.

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The Silent One
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#10 Post by The Silent One »

rah wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:24 am Where do you and Vezzra reside? I wouldn't mind taking charge of organising an event. I could get a good venue in Liverpool, UK without cost:

https://doesliverpool.com/services/host ... wn-events/

But perhaps it would be better to have it on the (European) continent if most of the people who are interested live there? Or perhaps in the US?
I think most of the currently active developers, including me, reside in Germany.
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LienRag
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#11 Post by LienRag »

If wannabe FOCS-scripters like me are allowed to join at least part of such a meeting, this would certainly be a motivation to take the trip to a CCC event that would have a FreeOrion stand or workshop or whatever.
Pas Sage en Seine has been cancelled this year due to the Pandemic, but if some of you come to similar French events it would be nice to have a meeting (again, with or without wannabe FOCS-scripters, at your convenience).

defaultuser
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#12 Post by defaultuser »

The Silent One wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:20 pm I think most of the currently active developers, including me, reside in Germany.
That's interesting, I hadn't realized it was so concentrated. How did that come about? Did some of you know the others and bring them into the project?

rah
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#13 Post by rah »

Geoff the Medio wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:13 pm I would suggest arranging online group voice chats
That's very doable. Looking at the git log, it seems like there is very regular activity at the moment. Perhaps a meeting every fortnight? Seeing as Germany is the most common location for developers, how about 8pm Berlin time (CEST), every other Wednesday evening? (Not tonight as that would be too short notice.)

I've done a little searching and there's a public mumble server here:

http://pdeg.de/index.php/server/

Where they have a room called Linux, under "getStringFromObject()" which seems appropriate :-)
Last edited by rah on Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

rah
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#14 Post by rah »

The Silent One wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:20 pm I think most of the currently active developers, including me, reside in Germany.
That would make Germany the obvious choice but it would be difficult for me to organise as I'm not a local and my German language is negligible.

If nobody else steps up to organise, another option would be to arrange a meeting around FOSDEM.

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The Silent One
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Re: In-person developers meeting/hackfest

#15 Post by The Silent One »

defaultuser wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:38 am
The Silent One wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:20 pm I think most of the currently active developers, including me, reside in Germany.
That's interesting, I hadn't realized it was so concentrated. How did that come about? Did some of you know the others and bring them into the project?
I don't think so, it may be just chance
rah wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2020 9:05 amIf nobody else steps up to organise, another option would be to arrange a meeting around FOSDEM.
That's a neat idea. Also, their page says "open source" and "beer", so count me in. ... OMG, think of the endless possibilities: FreeOrion mugs - no, t-shirts! Tattoos! Hot Eaxxaw cosplay! :lol:
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