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Date:      Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:15:11 -0800
From:      Xin LI <delphij@delphij.net>
To:        Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com>
Cc:        ports@FreeBSD.org, Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@FreeBSD.org>, Dmitry Marakasov <amdmi3@amdmi3.ru>, Stanislav Sedov <stas@deglitch.com>, Martin Wilke <miwi@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: Recent ports removal
Message-ID:  <4EBD9E6F.3040708@delphij.net>
In-Reply-To: <20111111213817.GB8896@lonesome.com>
References:  <20111109124325.17efc0d1.stas@deglitch.com> <20111109222435.GD92221@azathoth.lan> <20111110110637.GA3514@hades.panopticon> <4EBCC587.10701@FreeBSD.org> <20111111100708.GA24126@hades.panopticon> <20111111124012.3ec48cb3.stas@deglitch.com> <20111111213817.GB8896@lonesome.com>

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(I just picked one message to do a reply-all, not specific to any one
single message but all of them).

Technically speaking the current approach's problem is that the user
might have no chance of seeing it before the port is removed.  By its
nature, deprecated ports tends not to be updated for long time, port
tools like portmaster, portupgrade will not even see it because no
PORTREVISION bump happen.  For users who install from packages, there
is no deprecation message at all, and it's pretty likely that these
user when updating to a new version suddenly find the software missing.

I think if we want to deprecate ports in a constant manner, we need to
do a better job of letting the user (or let's say potential
contributor) know it.  My own server in China have went offline for a
few months before my friend rebuild and install one for me, and I
suddenly noticed that some of previous ports maintained by someone
else have been marked as DEPRECATED because upstream gone.

Think about this: FreeBSD is not just a product, it's also a project
and a community.  It's never an overkill to do more things to keep
developers, contributors and potential contributors happy and continue
to contribute.  Making them happy is not "do whatever they want us to
do" but to think more about "what they would think, and how we can
improve".

Cheers,
- -- 
Xin LI <delphij@delphij.net>	https://www.delphij.net/
FreeBSD - The Power to Serve!		Live free or die
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