Re: Users Matter: Please Make SourceForge Usable

["T. V. Raman" <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The specific thing that is difficult: the final download link has
a mouse event handler and is an anchor tag that has an empty "#"
as the value of the href attribute.



>>>>> "David" == David Burley <burley@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    David> Greetings, While the new download page design is
    David> radically different than the prior download process, I
    David> believe that the changes likely will actually make it
    David> easier for visually impaired users to use the download
    David> system than it was prior.
    David> 
    David> The process now looks like the following:
    David> 
    David> 1. Find the project to download 2. Go to the project's
    David> summary page 3. Select the 'Download PROJECT NAME'
    David> link 4. Select the link with the filename that you
    David> wish to download, or the link named Mirror if you wish
    David> to select an alternate mirror to download from.
    David> 
    David> This process has many fewer steps than the prior
    David> process, and is less trouble-prone than the prior
    David> download mechanism.
    David> 
    David> If you have some specific examples of why this new
    David> system is harder to use for you and your users, we
    David> certainly would like to hear them. We worked hard to
    David> make sure this replacement system would be easier to
    David> use.
    David> 
    David> Thank you,
    David> 
    David> David Burley Quality of Service Analyst,
    David> SourceForge.net
    David> 
    David> 
    David> T. V. Raman wrote:
    >> David,
    >> 
    >> I must once again express my frustration with sourceforge.
    >> 
    >> I just relesed version 25 of emacspeak, but because of
    >> your recent redesign of your download area, it's now going
    >> to be impossible for the average emacspeak user to
    >> download the release.
    >> 
    >> I think this is the last straw --- I'm finally going to
    >> wash my hands off of Sourceforge altogether.
    >> 
    >>>>>>> "David" == David Burley <burley@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    >>>>>>> writes:
    David> Greetings, The plan is to revert this change on
    David> Monday.
    David> 
    David> Thank you,
    David> 
    David> David Burley Quality of Service Analyst,
    David> SourceForge.net
    David> 
    David> 
    David> On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 21:05 -0700, T. V. Raman wrote:
    >> >> 
    >> >> David,
    >> >> 
    >> >> Please consider reversing this >>
    >> http://digg.com/software/SourceForge_makes_getting_files_even_more_difficult
    >> >> a high priority.
    >> >> 
    >> >> Sourceforge is already very difficult to use for users
    >> who >> cannot see, and the above might be the last straw
    >> with >> respect to users like myself continuing to use and
    >> support >> sourceforge.
    >> >> 
    >> >> I consider the aove sufficiently bad that I will
    >> probably >> have to start looking for alternative sites to
    >> host the >> emacspeak project.
    >> >> 
    >> >> SF has been a wonderful free service, but it might be
    >> >> becoming too *costly* in other ways.
    David> 
    >> >> 
>>>>>>> "David" == David Burley <burley@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    David> Greetings, So you are fully appraised of the issue,
    David> here's the text from the site status page
    David> (https://www.sf.net/docs/A04):
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-14 11:18:04 - Project CVS Service ) As of
    David> 2006-04-14 we have an estimate on when the replacement
    David> CVS hardware for the new infrastructure will
    David> arrive. As soon as we get in into our hands, we'll
    David> actively work on it, with a goal of having it online
    David> by the end of the month of April. This is a best
    David> guess, and may not get hit due to the aggressive
    David> timeline we have placed on this project. However, be
    David> assured that recovery of this service in full is our
    David> highest priority. The sync process between developer
    David> and anonymous CVS (ViewCVS, etc.) is disabled now
    David> until the new infrastructure is in place, to ensure we
    David> have maximum coverage for the small number of data
    David> corruption issues that have been detected. We
    David> understand this is sub-optimal, but strongly believe
    David> that the protection of the data is paramount.
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-06 13:04:54 - Project CVS Service ) As
    David> result of the 2006-03-30 CVS outage, and previous CVS
    David> outages, some CVS repositories do not exist on the
    David> anonymous/ViewCVS CVS hosts. This will result in proxy
    David> errors and other various unusual results when trying
    David> to access those hosts. Once we get the CVS services
    David> into better order, we'll start the synchronization
    David> processes again and these problems will go away. Our
    David> primary concern right now is for the security and
    David> reliability of developer CVS access, after which we'll
    David> restore anonymous access.
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-06 13:02:34 - Project CVS Service ) During
    David> the post-CVS outage system assessment from the March
    David> 30, 2006 CVS outage, we have noted a few cases of
    David> filesystem corruption on the developer CVS server.  We
    David> expect that a small number of repositories are
    David> affected (likely 50 or less) by the data
    David> corruption. Accordingly, we'd like all projects to
    David> audit their CVS repository for corruption and raise
    David> any issues to us via a Confidential Support Request
    David> immediately. In order to ensure your own data
    David> integrity, we also ask that you make a backup of your
    David> working copy, and do a full checkout of your
    David> repository along-side your existing working copy, so
    David> it can remain a valid source of data for your project,
    David> should a file be found corrupt (it very well may be
    David> the most recent, applicable data, even though we have
    David> multiple other sources for the same file). In some
    David> cases, we have detected the corruption and will be
    David> contacting those projects directly via email as we
    David> move forward. While we continue to work on ensuring
    David> the data viability on the developer CVS host, we are
    David> also continuing our progress with the replacement
    David> infrastructure for CVS. The new hardware order has
    David> been placed and we are concurrently preparing the
    David> technology and software components needed to make the
    David> transition to the new infrastructure. Again, we thank
    David> you for your patience and cooperation while we do
    David> everything we can to safegaurd your data.
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-04 15:09:16 - Project CVS Service ) On
    David> 2006-04-04 at 14:15 Pacific developer CVS services
    David> were re-enabled after replacement of the failed
    David> hardware, successful completion of a full host backup,
    David> and a cursory data validity check on the host. As a
    David> precaution, we have not re-enabled the sync between
    David> anonymous pserver/ViewCVS and the developer CVS
    David> host. We anticipate that the sync's along with tarball
    David> generation will be re-enabled on Friday. Any issues
    David> found with CVS services over the following 7 days
    David> should be reported to the Confidential Support Queue.
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-03 14:04:56 - Project CVS Service ) As an
    David> update to the 2006-03-30 CVS outage, our current
    David> estimate is that CVS services will be back online
    David> (developer access) late Tuesday or early Wednesday
    David> (Pacific Timezone).
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-04-03 05:55:21 - Project CVS Service ) On
    David> 2006-03-30 the developer CVS server had a substantial
    David> system failure. Due to the implementation of the CVS
    David> service, there is a single point of failure with
    David> multiple points of recovery (there is more than one
    David> data source we could potentially recover from if there
    David> is any data loss as a result of the failure). This
    David> outage currently affects developer CVS access
    David> directly, but we have disabled tarball updates and
    David> data syncs from the developer CVS server to the
    David> anonymous pserver/ViewCVS hosts as an additional level
    David> of precaution. Our main focus since the outage was
    David> detected has been to safegaurd all data on the
    David> developer CVS server as well as possible. We are
    David> currently attempting to backup the data on the host,
    David> which is taking longer than we initially anticipated
    David> it would, but is a necessary step to fully safegaurd
    David> the host's data. Next, we are going to perform some
    David> data validation to ensure the data set appears
    David> valid. Pending successful completion of those steps,
    David> we'll reenable developer CVS access. A few days after,
    David> we'll reenable CVS tarballs and syncs to anonymous
    David> CVS. In the mean time, we're currently advancing plans
    David> for a CVS architecture change based upon the knowledge
    David> we gained during Subversion deployment to eliminate
    David> the single point of failure that developer CVS
    David> currently has, add horizontal scalability and overall
    David> service resiliance. However, we still do not have an
    David> estimate on when developer CVS services will be
    David> restored, but we have been, and currently are actively
    David> working to restore access to CVS. We appreciate your
    David> patience with us while we work to properly resolve
    David> this major outage.
    David> 
    David> ( 2006-03-31 07:00:01 - Project CVS Service ) On
    David> 2006-03-30 the developer CVS server had a hardware
    David> issue that required us to take the service offline. We
    David> are actively working on this problem and hope to have
    David> it back up soon. There is not a current estimate for
    David> the duration of this outage, but when we get one, it
    David> will be posted on the site status page (this page). We
    David> currently expect this outage to last 48 hours, at
    David> minimum.
    David> 
    David> 
    David> 
    David> The basic gist of it is, that anonymous CVS will be
    David> down until we get the new infrastructure up. We
    David> believe the hosts will be delivered to us next week,
    David> and we have already started the development of the
    David> software pieces needed to implement it. The current
    David> hope is to have it done by the end of this week, but
    David> as we don't have the hardware yet, it may take until
    David> the first week of may to resolve.
    David> 
    David> That said, as the tracker is not usable to you, do not
    David> hesitate to contact me directly via this manner. While
    David> I don't like the general populous to do this, as that
    David> would certainly inundate me with email traffic, I
    David> definitely don't mine hearing from you directly on any
    David> matters. The site is not optimized for the blind, but
    David> I and we support your efforts to make software easier
    David> to use for the blind. Hopefully we can change that as
    David> we move forward, but stability and service
    David> availability are the top concerns at the moment.
    David> 
    David> So, please do not hesitate to contact me directly with
    David> your concerns.
    David> 
    David> Thank you,
    David> 
    David> David Burley Quality of Service Analyst,
    David> SourceForge.net
    David> 
    David> 
    David> On Sat, 2006-04-22 at 08:24 -0700, T. V. Raman wrote:
    >> >> >> David, Could you look into this for us?  It appears
    >> >> that >> anon cvs has not been getting updated for a
    >> while >> --- >> looks like it has not been receiving
    >> updates after >> the cvs >> meltdown at Sourceforge a
    >> couple of weeks ago.  >> i >> apologize for not using SF's
    >> Web interface to report >> the >> problem, but as I've
    >> mentioned in the past, that >> setup is >> well-nigh
    >> impossible to use if you cannot see.
    >> >> >> 
    >> >> >> Thanks for your help.  email message attachment, >>
    >> >> "forwarded message" On Sat, 2006-04-22 at 08:24 -0700,
    >> >> >> T. V. Raman wrote: > Hi Raman,
    >> >> >> > 
    >> >> >> > I stil cannot see the changes to >>
    >> emacspeak-m-player.el >> or any other > changes in the >>
    >> anonymous CVS. I believe >> this goes beyond a normal > >>
    >> delay. The anonymous CVs >> appears to be locked at a >>
    >> state from maybe 2 > weeks ago.
    >> >> >> > 
    >> >> >> > Best regards, Lukas
    David> -- David Burley Quality of Service Analyst,
    David> SourceForge.net burley@xxxxxxxxxxx
    David> 
    David> 
    David> 
    David> 
    David> **************************************************************************
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    David> Any review or distribution by others is strictly
    David> prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient,
    David> please contact the sender and delete all copies.
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    >> >> 
    >> >> Thanks, --Raman
    >> >> 
    David> -- David Burley Quality of Service Analyst,
    David> SourceForge.net burley@xxxxxxxxxxx
    David> 
    David> 
    David> 
    David> 
    David> **************************************************************************
    David> This email may contain confidential and privileged
    David> material for the sole use of the intended recipient.
    David> Any review or distribution by others is strictly
    David> prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient,
    David> please contact the sender and delete all copies.
    David> ***************************************************************************
    >>

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      
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