New Website Clarification
In this recent reddit post, Jonathan (online nickname "foonathan") says:
AFAIK the CppAlliance decided to unilaterally write a new boost website for the Boost foundation, but the Boost foundation wasn't/isn't that interested in it. ... I was told details, but I don't know whether they are official Boost foundation statements or personal views of the person that told me about it, so I don't want to share them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/14whxvd/comment/jriii9h/ I responded with a clarification which I am reposting here for the convenience of the folks on the mailing list. Cut on the dotted line: Thanks ---- Point of clarification here: We (a collection of Boost library authors including myself) recognized the need for an updated website. Discussions about a new website would recur on the mailing list, with everyone offering different opinions. There were one (maybe two? efforts to produce a new website which started out with good intentions but ultimately failed for various reasons (venturing a guess I would say that it was a "design by committee" problem combined with a lack of resources). The current new in-development website is here (the URL is temporary): https://boost.revsys.dev Please open any issues or requests in the corresponding site repo: https://github.com/cppalliance/temp-site Because I care about Boost and I am deeply committed to improving the C++ ecosystem, I decided that The C++ Alliance would invest its resources in a new website project, following these principles: That we would start building the site first instead of starting with lengthy mailing list discussions that go nowhere. That the new site would be designed according a vision that was later outlined in a mailing list post (see: https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2023/05/254612.php) *After* the site was substantially completed we would launch a public beta to get feedback on what areas we need to work on. That we would leave to the Boost community: the library authors, maintainers, reviewers, release managers, and users; the decision on whether the new website is what they want to represent Boost going forward. In other words I took the approach to simply build it first and then figure out what people want later. Because the mailing list tradition is to debate a thing intensely and then proceed to do nothing as no one is interesting in actually doing the work. Of course I recognized and accepted before the project was started that this could be one huge gamble; that no one is going to want this type of site, and that most everyone prefers the existing site. I can understand the Boost Foundation's reluctance to embrace this new website. Creating, maintaining, and hosting something of this high level of quality requires resources. Fortunately, The C++ Alliance is well equipped for the task. To ensure the ongoing success of this website we have allocated in our budget ongoing full-time staff as well as the resources to ensure that the website is performant for visitors in every timezone (as Boost has a global audience). Our dedicated website staff includes: Samuel Darwin: Our full-time CTO/Senior DevOps expert. He is the guy who deployed Drone CI and make it available for the entire Boost GitHub organization (example: https://drone.cpp.al/boostorg/url). He brings decades of experience managing live systems and has been studying intensely on the specific needs of C++ developers Spencer Strickland: Our full-time front-end developer who is up-to-date on modern, responsive website development. He is also a programming enthusiast who loves writing JavaScript and Python programs. He is also working on styling the templates for the new documentation toolchain (example: https://www.boost.revsys.dev/doc/user-guide/task-networking.html) Peter Turcan: Our full time technical writer. He's furiously typing away at brand new documentation for Boost users and authors. As documentation complaints are a recurring theme from users, we feel that having at least one dedicated technical writer is probably a good start! You can check out his work here: https://www.boost.revsys.dev/doc/contributor-guide/version-control.html We also keep an ongoing maintenance contract with RevSys (https://www.revsys.com/), a wonderful development company whose founder (Frank Wiles) specializes in Django and is also responsible for contributing a huge percentage of the work that went into the Django project itself. Only the best for Boost! And don't forget you can visit all of us at The C++ Alliance, plus many Boost library authors, maintainers, and users, and many prominent members of the C++ community including some Standardization Committee regulars, by joining the Official C++ Language Slack Workspace at: https://cppalliance.org/slack/ The C++ Alliance sponsors this workspace by offering a complete Paid Plan which allows unlimited full history, uploads, video and audio recordings, and video and audio huddles/group chats for collaboration and more. Visit us today!
On Tue, Jul 11, 2023 at 1:15 PM Vinnie Falco via Boost < boost@lists.boost.org> wrote:
In this recent reddit post, Jonathan (online nickname "foonathan") says:
AFAIK the CppAlliance decided to unilaterally write a new boost website for the Boost foundation, but the Boost foundation wasn't/isn't that interested in it. ... I was told details, but I don't know whether they are official Boost foundation statements or personal views of the person that told me about it, so I don't want to share them.
I can understand the Boost Foundation's reluctance to embrace this new website.
When the Boost Foundation originally saw the web project over a year ago, it was supportive. In later discussions, some on the board conveyed hesitance at adopting something complicated or expensive to maintain. The general attitude is to wait and see how it goes. There's no official Boost Foundation opinion; we haven't taken a vote or anything. My own two cents is that we direly need a website renewal. I like the style and looks of Vinnie's proposed site, but I'm not convinced about the forum piece. The wonderful thing is that we'll all get to try this out and adopt whatever works best for the community. Everyone wins. -- David
participants (2)
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David Sankel
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Vinnie Falco