website coders.

this probably has been talked about before.... BUT... all these ideas for just making tasks easier or a lot more convenient should be implemented to continue building this site. unfortunately, every single little thing cannot be put in as russ and chris dont have time. maybe there shoudl be volunteer coders or something like that that could implement these little ideas.

Great idea ... BUT.

I maintain the code base for another high volume site and much as you think features could be implemented by just about anyone, whether or not you want to hand over the code base to work from is another matter. Next comes the data - first they get the code, then they get the data ........ and next they're able to take the site down (or worse - corrupt data) with a coding mistake.

Often, the time taken to test and integrate is more than the time taken to write the change -- and those tasks cannot be farmed out to anyone but the core administrators.


The solution, if there is one, is much more likely to involve growing the core team by one person than trying to pull in five or six others into the periphery.

Originally posted by dsb3
Great idea ... BUT.

I maintain the code base for another high volume site and much as you think features could be implemented by just about anyone, whether or not you want to hand over the code base to work from is another matter. Next com ...[text shortened]... than trying to pull in five or six others into the periphery.

This is almost exactly the case. Believe it or not, often the coding does not take too much time. But, the testing of that code to the point where you are comfortable it is not going to zap everyone’s games is the problem – it is tedious and time consuming.

When any modification to the site’s code is made by anyone but me I try to code review it to minimise any chance of a mistake - that itself can be more time consuming than writing it in the first place. Because I maintain control of the sites source code (using all the normal tools), I know when and what has changed, and so far we have never had any serious issues.

Believe it or not, the one thing that slows development on this site is the ‘human’ issues (feedback and dealing with individual’s problems), and other technical and maintenance problems. I could happily spend 100% of my time hacking code, but that is far from the reality of running this site. In the (distant) future, if funds allow, we will try to get someone to help out with the more routine tasks, but this will most likely not involve any software engineering tasks.

After having said all that though, I should say that I am slowly getting closer to making interfaces available to anyone who would like to create projects that talk to RHP. I will offer all the support I can to anyone working on these projects, and although I will promote their efforts on RHP, their work would not be part of my code base, and therefore would not be supported by me.

-Russ