Dev's To-Do List for 2015?

[somename]

Hi guys

Every 2-3 weeks I visit the forum to see what's going on and I've been doing that for a while.

In recent dev updates I see there's some activity related to the recent new bug, the Web site and some mining-related work.

But the most important part - getting people to use the coin - doesn't seem to have significant activities (or those activities aren't contained in dev meeting notes).

Can the devs tell us what is being done to put Namecoin in production for .bit or other stuff? With OKTurtles there was a chance to get something done, instead it turned into an unhappy argument. Fair enough, maybe it wasn't done the way it should be, etc., but what is being done or planned here?

To be frank, the project seems to be in "sustaining" mode.

Thanks

[biolizard89]

I've been working on wallet UI improvements (so that JSON expertise isn't needed), DNS improvements (based on Unbound), and TLS stuff (Firefox extension). I'm also working on some prototyping of improvements to NameID (so that you don't need a Firefox extension or to trust an OpenID server). These efforts aren't released or finished yet, which is why you haven't seen much on the forum about them, but stuff is definitely happening.

You are right that better communication would probably be beneficial.

All that said, things would be going faster if we had some more funding. Donations are always appreciated.

[somename]

I've been working on wallet UI improvements (so that JSON expertise isn't needed), DNS improvements (based on Unbound), and TLS stuff (Firefox extension). I'm also working on some prototyping of improvements to NameID (so that you don't need a Firefox extension or to trust an OpenID server). These efforts aren't released or finished yet, which is why you haven't seen much on the forum about them, but stuff is definitely happening.

You are right that better communication would probably be beneficial.

All that said, things would be going faster if we had some more funding. Donations are always appreciated.

Okay, sounds good. Some additional feedback:

1) A lot of these efforts aren't visible enough (partially because the main Web site isn't frequently updated, and partially because this forums s/w makes it impossible to see what the heck is going on). I follow Namecoin quite closely, read all the news that I find, etc. but I had no idea (never heard!) about NameID. Whoever is doing marketing could reach out to potential stakeholders (that is, s/w apps that could make use of Namecoin) to get some visibility and exposure. As I said my only impression of recent outreach efforts is the public argument with OKTurtles (the complete opposite of what should be done ).

2) Funding: perhaps it would help to get more specific in funding requests. For example, let's say there's an option to fund NameID integration with WordPress or whatever. That way it would be easier to attract donations for particular modules or features. If you could break your roadmap into distinct parts and allow people to donate for prioritization, that should help.

3) Both Unbound (with NMC) and NameID are nice ideas. Tutorials for setting and using these would be really welcome.
IMO one of significant issues at the moment is getting 3rd party s/w apps or sites on board, and I think it'd a lot easier if there were basic how-to docs for these apps and maybe a plugin or two for things like WordPress or whatever else the donors want to pay for to get things going.

I'd really like to see a breakdown of the team's plans/efforts by detailed features so that community members can see what they're interested in or tell others what's possible in the near to medium term provided they donate some funds.

[biolizard89]

Okay, sounds good. Some additional feedback:

1) A lot of these efforts aren't visible enough (partially because the main Web site isn't frequently updated, and partially because this forums s/w makes it impossible to see what the heck is going on). I follow Namecoin quite closely, read all the news that I find, etc. but I had no idea (never heard!) about NameID. Whoever is doing marketing could reach out to potential stakeholders (that is, s/w apps that could make use of Namecoin) to get some visibility and exposure. As I said my only impression of recent outreach efforts is the public argument with OKTurtles (the complete opposite of what should be done ).

The website is rarely updated because it's using a crappy custom PHP-based CMS that makes it difficult to update. I've been leading an effort to switch to the Jekyll CMS, which would allow anyone to submit pull requests for website updates entirely from the GitHub web UI. The intention is to move all the content from the wiki (with major cleanup) to the new Jekyll-based website, and add some intro pages that list software that implements and/or uses Namecoin. NameID would certainly be on that list. The Jekyll move is close to ready.

2) Funding: perhaps it would help to get more specific in funding requests. For example, let's say there's an option to fund NameID integration with WordPress or whatever. That way it would be easier to attract donations for particular modules or features. If you could break your roadmap into distinct parts and allow people to donate for prioritization, that should help.

Yes, if we use BountySource's Salt platform, what you're suggesting would definitely be a major component of what we do. It's already possible to donate to specific ticket bounties on BountySource (although we aren't linking to it from namecoin.org yet, see above).

3) Both Unbound (with NMC) and NameID are nice ideas. Tutorials for setting and using these would be really welcome.
IMO one of significant issues at the moment is getting 3rd party s/w apps or sites on board, and I think it'd a lot easier if there were basic how-to docs for these apps and maybe a plugin or two for things like WordPress or whatever else the donors want to pay for to get things going.

Yep. Documentation has suffered lately, but I'd love to see that improve. I think documentation will be a higher priority once the code itself has stabilized -- right now the code is incomplete enough that if we wrote thorough documentation now, we'd have to rewrite it when the code works better.

I'd really like to see a breakdown of the team's plans/efforts by detailed features so that community members can see what they're interested in or tell others what's possible in the near to medium term provided they donate some funds.

We actually wrote this up for a grant that we applied for (we didn't get the grant, unfortunately). Getting that info posted on the new Jekyll website is definitely important to me. And if we use BountySource Salt, this info will also be on the Salt page.

[phelix]

I've been working on wallet UI improvements (so that JSON expertise isn't needed), DNS improvements (based on Unbound), and TLS stuff (Firefox extension). I'm also working on some prototyping of improvements to NameID (so that you don't need a Firefox extension or to trust an OpenID server). These efforts aren't released or finished yet, which is why you haven't seen much on the forum about them, but stuff is definitely happening.

You are right that better communication would probably be beneficial.

+1

Okay, sounds good. Some additional feedback:

Feedback is very helpful as one tends to not see these things any more with time.

1) A lot of these efforts aren't visible enough (partially because the main Web site isn't frequently updated, and partially because this forums s/w makes it impossible to see what the heck is going on).

side note: have you tried "View active topics"?

I follow Namecoin quite closely, read all the news that I find, etc. but I had no idea (never heard!) about NameID. Whoever is doing marketing could reach out to potential stakeholders (that is, s/w apps that could make use of Namecoin) to get some visibility and exposure. As I said my only impression of recent outreach efforts is the public argument with OKTurtles (the complete opposite of what should be done ).

The problem is there is nobody focusing on marketing atm.

Over time there have come lots of websites, tools and code into being somehow related to Namecoin. One thing I have planned is a list of resources simply listing all this stuff with a one line explanation or so. Another thing is a "list of job descriptions".

I'd really like to see a breakdown of the team's plans/efforts by detailed features so that community members can see what they're interested in or tell others what's possible in the near to medium term provided they donate some funds.

How about this roadmap: https://github.com/namecoin/meta/blob/master/roadmap.md I just recently moved it to the official repo and it might not yet reflect consensus (for example I just notice the Jekyl website is missing). Others need to lean in and then we will make it more visible (or the other way round ).

We need to think more like a company (an ethical one).

[somename]

Thanks for the info.

I did look at the link on Github and I was puzzled why it's not shown in a major way in the forum (or probably mentioned in dev meetings (in the sense, "how are we doing against the plan"?)

> side note: have you tried "View active topics"?

Yes, and I found some thing that way, but this forums s/w is not the easiest thing to use. (The worst annoyance, personally, is the tiny and illogically placed time/date stamp for each comment, so you may find a thread from 2012 that looks really interesting, only to realize that all the promising comments are from 2014, and so on).

I saw a comment related to that (to use Gitter, etc.) and I think the site should be able to run on .bit, so it probably has to be OSS and self- (or sponsor-?) hosted.
Improvements are necessary, but let's not go too crazy and create data in proprietary formats.

[biolizard89]

The roadmap that Phelix linked isn't displayed prominently because it hasn't been reviewed by the Namecoin developers, so we don't want people to mistake it for an official document.

[phelix]

The worst annoyance, personally, is the tiny and illogically placed time/date stamp for each comment, so you may find a thread from 2012 that looks really interesting, only to realize that all the promising comments are from 2014, and so on.

I remember how that struck me odd, too, when I was new to the forum. It is now removed. Good idea

I saw a comment related to that (to use Gitter, etc.) and I think the site should be able to run on .bit, so it probably has to be OSS and self- (or sponsor-?) hosted.
Improvements are necessary, but let's not go too crazy and create data in proprietary formats.

The problem is we are too thinly stretched resource wise. We must rely on something existing with as little work for us as possible.

The roadmap that Phelix linked isn't displayed prominently because it hasn't been reviewed by the Namecoin developers, so we don't want people to mistake it for an official document.

Note that if there is no progress on this at some point it will be auto ACKed