IRC logs for #farmOS, 2022-01-21 (GMT)

2022-01-20
2022-01-22
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[10:12:27]<mstenta[m]>We're getting a lot of good ideas and feature requests in the forum!
[10:13:03]<mstenta[m]>Perhaps we should create a pinned forum topic that gives a quick overview of "how things get done" in the project. :-)
[10:13:56]<mstenta[m]>I worry that new community members have an expectation that "if I have an idea someone will build it", when in reality that is not the case.
[10:14:35]<mstenta[m]>And relatedly, I've been avoiding creating new feature requests for every idea, because it just adds to the issue queues without any guarantee that it will get done.
[10:14:50]<mstenta[m]>So I've been reserving those for "things I know we will actually do".
[10:15:17]<mstenta[m]>So it just makes me think: perhaps a pinned forum topic to describe these considerations would be useful to point to.
[10:15:20]<mstenta[m]>And to make it clear: "YOU can help build this!"
[10:16:02]<mstenta[m]>Stuff only gets built if someone wants to volunteer their time for it (eg: if they need/want the feature themselves), or if someone sponsors it (AND a developer has the capacity/interest in building it for pay)
[10:17:28]<mstenta[m]>I think these ideas are not necessarily intuitive to people who are coming to an open source project from the broader software world, where a single company is responsible for fielding and building (or not) feature requests from its users
[10:22:34]<mstenta[m]>On the last monthly call we also discussed the idea of putting up a new forum category for folks to post things like "I will work on sponsored projects" and/or "I will sponsor X"
[10:22:36]<sgoodall[m]>I think you are right, the way I see it to work is that there should be a team that keeps the core working ( a challenge in itself) and that this core has well defined/documented handles that can be taken by whoever wants a feature request and match them as wished for the results they need. This allows for a consistency in the core addressing weak links and what provides most marginal reaction while the features float on this layer. Just my
[10:22:36]<sgoodall[m]>0.02c
[10:23:44]<mstenta[m]>Agreed sgoodall ! And in my opinion "core" should remain as "lean" as possible... we have the ability to do a lot in modules maintained by the community, which don't have to be included with farmOS core.
[10:23:55]<mstenta[m]>"lean" == "general purpose" too
[10:24:09]<sgoodall[m]>yes, a RISC attitude
[10:27:53]<sgoodall[m]>Documentation on the interface is what ends being critical, I find myself in that situation, I would love a Farm Management Framework like farmOS to do everything for me ( well, who wouldn't) but have limited time and at the moment limited resources so my main challenge at the moment is "How do I connect and interact with this beast?", no offense meant, anything that you don't understand is a beast!
[10:28:18]<mstenta[m]>Indeed!
[10:29:13]<sgoodall[m]>we just need to make it a tamer beast :)
[10:29:53]<mstenta[m]>We need more beast tamers :-)
[10:47:04]<sgoodall[m]>Be happy to be one when I learn to speak to it, for the moment I am just going round it in circles wondering where to start...
[10:49:03]<mstenta[m]>Anything in particular you want help with sgoodall ?
[10:52:51]<sgoodall[m]>Just reading what I typed I would say that the process of beginning would be helped by a small sample of how to begin.
[10:53:48]<mstenta[m]>What kind of operation do you run?
[10:54:03]<sgoodall[m]><mstenta[m]> "Anything in particular you..." <- Maybe by trying to understand the core and create a more graphical representation that allows you to "get it"
[10:59:20]<sgoodall[m]><mstenta[m]> "What kind of operation do you..." <- At the moment I am doing consulting in ( Egypt and Italy) work but I have run large sheep, cattle and deer grazing ( mobs, individual animal records, stock conciliation) operations both in Argentina and in New Zealand, staff (multiuser) is also an issue. Yep, I could probably think up a list of a thousand and one features, lol
[11:00:00]<sgoodall[m]>Happy to integrate Holistic Management, GIS and Soil Food Web into that list of requirements but then we are looking for solutions
[11:03:13]<sgoodall[m]>I would say that my most urgent items at present would be understanding the single animal/mob dynamics, how to make sure there is a path forward for very flexible re-shuffling mobs ( for grazing/management decisions) that allows for traceability and looking back at individiual animals || mobs and doing stock reconciliation at the end of the month for accounting purposes.
[11:04:21]<mstenta[m]><mstenta[m]> "Perhaps we should create a..." <- https://farmos.discourse.group/t/how-things-get-built-from-ideas-to-code...
[11:04:32]<sgoodall[m]>But if i do not understand the beast I can't really speak to it. And then comes in my present limitations of time and resources for the people I am contracting for would probably not pay for these features. So this leaves me back at square 1, walking round the beast...
[11:05:16]<mstenta[m]>I wonder if any of your questions are answered here? https://farmos.org/guide/assets/#animals
[11:05:42]<sgoodall[m]>Will have a look