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GLEP: 30 |
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Title: "Planet Gentoo" web log aggregator |
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Version: $Revision: 1.3 $ |
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Last-Modified: $Date: 2004/11/10 16:15:34 $ |
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Author: Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org> |
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Status: Final |
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Type: Standards Track |
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Content-Type: text/x-rst |
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Created: 24-Oct-2004 |
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Post-History: 25-Oct-2004, 10-Nov-2004, 11-Mar-2005 |
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|
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Status |
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====== |
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|
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The new `Planet Gentoo`_ came online 10-Mar-2005, so this GLEP is now Final. |
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|
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.. _Planet Gentoo: http://planet.gentoo.org/ |
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Credits |
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======= |
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- `Stuart Herbert`_ for the original idea |
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- `Alexander Plank`_ who also has put effort into promoting this |
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|
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Abstract |
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======== |
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|
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This GLEP proposes the creation of "Planet Gentoo", a new section of the |
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gentoo.org website. It would aggregate weblogs (commonly known as "blogs") |
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written by contributing Gentoo developers onto this single page, available to |
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the public. I will refer to this new website section as "the planet" in this |
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GLEP. |
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We would also provide an installation of a weblog engine for developers that |
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do not currently have their own weblog. |
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|
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Motivation |
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========== |
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|
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I'm trying to reduce the gap between the Gentoo user and development |
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communities. |
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|
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Many large open source projects and software distributors have their own |
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Planet where contributors weblogs are aggregated. See the `Planetplanet`_ |
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homepage for a complete listing. These other aggregations appear to be |
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successful and bring their relevant communities together. |
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|
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These aggregations are often quite interesting to read, since they contain a |
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variation of topics, not all of which are related to the project. |
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The planet would add another method of user interaction with developers, as |
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most weblogs allow readers to post comments. |
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Readers would get more interested in the Gentoo project, and would get a feel |
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for the personalities of the contributing developers. Although I am not |
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suggesting this should be used as an announcement tool, developers could also |
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use this to get general messages over to the user community. |
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|
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This would also benefit our development, as developers would also be able to |
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keep track of what other developers are working on and promote more |
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collaboration amongst each other. |
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|
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Specification |
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============= |
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|
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The proposed design is an installation of `Planetplanet`_ at a part of the |
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gentoo.org infrastructure, e.g. http://planet.gentoo.org |
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|
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We would also provide an installation of `Wordpress`_ or a similar weblogging |
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engine, for developers that do not have their own weblog or would wish to |
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move their log to an official Gentoo hosted website. This could be provided |
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at (e.g.) http://weblogs.gentoo.org |
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|
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Rationale |
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========= |
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|
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`Planetplanet`_ is simply a weblog aggregator written in python. It is |
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executed as a cronjob and fetches content from all the weblogs it has been |
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asked to, postprocesses and aggregates them into a single html file (based on |
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a template), and outputs that html content to an area provided by a webserver. |
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This should allow for ease of integration with any existing infrastructure. |
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|
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Planetplanet is configurable through a single configuration file, which lists |
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the log feed URL, real name and user name for each contributing developer. |
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|
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`Wordpress`_ is a weblogging engine written in PHP. It relies on MySQL for |
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the data store. After the initial setup, all configuration is done through a |
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web-based interface. |
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A group of people would be assigned the responsibility/CVS access to maintain |
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these two services. I would suggest the existing infrastructure team to have |
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this responsibility. If required, I will assist with the initial |
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configuration. |
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The planetplanet installation would fetch and aggregate developers weblogs |
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only, we would not accept non-developer logs. |
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Developers do not have to host their weblogs with us, practically all blogging |
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packages provide an XML feed (typically RSS) which planetplanet will happily |
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fetch and process. Other feed formats are also accepted, examine the |
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planetplanet documentation for more info. |
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In the event of a contributing Gentoo developer leaving the project, their log |
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would be removed from the aggregation. If their log was hosted by ourselves, |
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it would be closed. For this reason, some developers may choose to host their |
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log elsewhere - this is not a problem and is left to the decision of the |
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individual developers. |
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It is true that the addition of the planet to our website collection would add |
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yet another source of Gentoo information to our collection; our users and |
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developers are already overwhelmed with IRC, mailing lists, forums, and the |
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central website. In contrast, a lot of information is currently replicated |
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over those mediums, but the planet would provide a taste of something new. |
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Developers can choose their own topics and are free to write about things that |
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perhaps would not fit into our existing communication mediums. Additionally, |
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the planet will attempt to bring some existing content together by linking to |
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recent commits, bug lists, and dev.gentoo.org webspace for each contributing |
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developer. |
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It has been suggested that the activity of the planet may be an issue: |
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although a lot of activity would make the planet very successful, it may look |
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bad on us as a whole if the planet is inactive. |
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|
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`Alexander Plank`_ started a `gentoo-dev discussion`_ back in August regarding |
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this exact idea. Alexander set up a `Planet Gentoo mini-survey`_ to see which |
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developers have weblogs or would be interested in obtaining one to be |
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aggregated on the planet. At the time of writing, the survey yielded a list |
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of 21 interested developers. |
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Looking at the other planets available, a contributor count like this would be |
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more than enough to keep the planet active and interesting. Through my |
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experiments of finding developers existing weblogs through google and |
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aggregating them on my local Planetplanet installation, I have come to the |
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conclusion that just a small quantity of active weblogs is enough to keep the |
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planet going strongly. |
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I also note that the list of 21 interested developers was built up over a |
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short space of time, and it was only mentioned once in a rather large thread |
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on the gentoo-dev mailing list. I predict that given more publicity amongst |
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the developers, this idea would be even more popular. I also predict that if |
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such a planet were to go live, other developers would be motivated to join in, |
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and new developers joining the project would be keen on contributing. |
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|
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The success of the planet will be evaluated by examining the number of hits to |
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the planet. 3 months after launch, one weeks worth of logs will be recorded, |
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and hits will be counted. If the hit count for that week is below 1000, the |
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planet will be deemed as not having met its target, and appropriate action can |
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be taken if the planet appears to be harming our image. |
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Backwards Compatibility |
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======================= |
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No issues. |
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Reference Implementation |
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======================== |
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See `Bug 63160`_ for a template file mimicking the current gentoo.org design |
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plus a sample config file. |
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References |
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========== |
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|
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.. _Stuart Herbert: stuart@gentoo.org |
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|
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.. _Alexander Plank: alexander@gentoo.org |
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.. _Planetplanet: http://www.planetplanet.org |
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.. _Wordpress: http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=wordpress |
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.. _gentoo-dev discussion: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/20480 |
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.. _Planet Gentoo mini-survey: http://penguincluster.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/BlogInterest |
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.. _Bug 63160: http://bugs.gentoo.org/63160 |
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Copyright |
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========= |
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|
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This document has been placed in the public domain. |
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