Communicating the launch #8
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fnetX
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Reference: forgejo/meta#8
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Communication plan
Codeberg
Forgejo
aac445eb2e/src/pages/news/2022-12-15-hello-forgejo.mdCommunication planto Communicating the launchI feel that establishing a sub-governance is important, reason why I'm moving forward with CoC. And I think other aspects of a healthy sub-governance must be put in place (transparency, process to decide who is trusted with what credentials, etc.). It is however "sub" in the sense that the governance is ultimately under the authority of Codeberg because it is trusted with the domains and trademark. In other words, whatever we decide can ultimately be over turned by Codeberg who is a democratic non profit dedicated to Free Software. Reason why I think both truthful and simpler to not include the sub-governance details in the release: it is delegated authority from codeberg and an implementation detail.
This seems like another good thing to be outlined in a FAQ. And that the sub-governance has quite a lot of "freedom" otherwise.
For the record a thread on HN regarding Forgejo. The person who posted the link is apparently favorable to Forgejo and wrote a number of messages to answer the comments that are mostly negative.
This is useful input for what to expect and avoid when communicating the launch.
It also suggests that unless the launch happens soon, the word will spread in ways that are difficult to predict. And it may end up being mostly negative for no good reason.
From @circlebuilder in the chatroom
This is mostly covered by the Readme, but we need to also be able to answer it succinctly and convincingly in one of two sentences when asked.
@fnetX I'm assigning this to you in case you can work something out before December 1st. Feel free to unassign if that's too much.
@fnetX here is a draft blogpost for publication at https://blog.codeberg.org/ on December 8th, 2022 to launch Forgejo. I propose that in case it makes it easier for you but you are very welcome to trash in completely and write something entirely different.
dachary referenced this issue from forgejo/website2022-12-01 09:32:01 +00:00
@fnetX gentle ping.
@fnetX drafted a blog post to be published on the Forgejo blog on November 28th which I failed to notice (see https://pad.gusted.xyz/bwdxOXBCR0eWSxEKSJSOTQ#). I'll review it today.
My draft blog post for publication on the Forgejo website, for the record. See the associated pad.
Welcome to Forgejo (inspired by forĝejo /ˈfor.d͡ʒe.jo/ – the Esperanto word for forge).
We're a group of previous Gitea maintainers, supporters and users, who do not trust
Gitea Ltd to care for our needs.
We decided to create Forgejo, a drop in replacement for Gitea maintained by our community under a healthy governance.
It will be used by Codeberg.org to provide a Free Software safe heaven for over 50,000 projects and 40,000 users.
The first step to reunite our community was to transfer the Forgejo domain names to Codeberg e.V., a non-profit dedicated to Free Software with a stellar reputation.
The second step is to collectively build a governance that empowers all of us equally.
We now have the peace of mind and the motivation to provide quality Forgejo releases (and managing security vulnerabilities) that can be downloaded and used as drop in replacements of Gitea. We are specially proud to self host Forgejo development and only rely on Free Software tools. Using Forgejo instead of GitHub. Using Woodpecker CI instead of Drone. Using Matrix instead of Discord.
The sustainability of Forgejo is a challenge, just as it is for most Free Software projects. Some members of our community are paid staff, others are beneficiaries of grants to further forge federation and they collaborate alongside volunteers who contribute out of the kindness of their heart. The harmony of our community relies on transparency and accepting that some of us need to make a living.
We have big dreams and Forgejo will provide additionnal functionalities in the near future. Its roadmap only has one item at the moment, a big one: forge federation. And the next will be whatever we collectively decide. Not because of the hidden agenda of a for-profit corporation that wants to maximize its profits. But by placing the needs of Forgejo users, those of us who create the whole Free Software ecosystem, at the center of the roadmap.
Join Forgejo now.
My draft blog post for publication on the Codeberg website, for the record. See the associated pad.
Codeberg launches Forgejo
In October 2022 the Gitea Ltd for-profit company took over the Gitea project. Brodie Robertson clearly explains the trust issues created by a move that took the entire community by surprise, including the Codeberg presidium and members. This situation was worrisome, and sad. We should not fight our collaborators and mates, but instead against the monopoly of proprietary for-profit platforms; standing united as the Free Software Movement and Gitea Community. Since day 0 (and before), Codeberg („teahub“ back then) was powered by Gitea and is strong in the Gitea ecosystem: e.V.-members help us maintain our current fork of Gitea and prepare Codeberg-specific patches.
The Free Software ecosystem needs companies to be sustainable and the Gitea project is no exception. Paid staff can work with a community of volunteers when a mutual trust exists. Sadly, Gitea Ltd broke that trust by a lack of transparency: its existence was kept a secret during months. After the initial announcement, Gitea Ltd published another blog post but it was still vague and there has been no other communication since. Who are the Gitea Ltd shareholders? Who, among the Gitea maintainers, are employees of Gitea Ltd?
Codeberg needs to run on a Free Software codebase maintained by trustworthy people. And the Gitea community deserves to be in control of the project when they generously volunteer their time. It must not be the company accepting the community. It must be the community generously accepting the company, and Gitea Ltd should be thankful for this, instead of trying to dictate how governance shall work in the future. Luckily Codeberg is in a unique position to reconnect the Gitea community in one place, independent and out of control of Gitea Ltd. And so we did.
The Forgejo project is hosted on Codeberg and offers a new home to reunite the Gitea community. Over the past few weeks it got ready to create releases and Codeberg will use Forgejo from starting with version 1.18.0 instead of Gitea. It provides Codeberg with an essential feature: trust. On a technical level, Forgejo is a drop-in replacement for Gitea, similar to LineageOS which can be used instead of Android.
This is only the beginning and Forgejo will build a roadmap based on what users need. You can become an active member of the Forgejo community now by filling a survey, joining the Matrix space, or following Forgejo in the fediverse at https://floss.social/@forgejo.
For the record, here is @circlebuilder first draft. Which I find much better than mine. I'll withdraw my draft and help finalize this one.
circlebuilder draft December 4th
Here's my take on the launch blog post. I feel some of the details in the other draft can be addressed later. I placed focus on the 2 main aspects of the project's positioning: project development, and product direction. Also in the intro the post is less sour on Gitea, stating matter-of-factly the reason for the soft fork. The fact that some in the community are paid staff, or that there are challenges to the sustainability of Forgejo can be addressed in follow-up blog posts. In the launch you mostly want to position the project itself in an exciting way.
Beyond coding. We forge.
After many days of hard work and preparation by a team of former Gitea maintainers and enthusiasts from the FOSS community we are proud to announce that the Forgejo project is now live.
Forgejo (inspired by forĝejo /ˈfor.d͡ʒe.jo/ – the Esperanto word for forge) is a community-driven Free Software project that develops a code forge platform similar to Github, and that is a drop-in replacement of Gitea. We started Forgejo in reaction to Gitea Ltd taking over from the community as a for-profit company without consulting the community, and after an Open Letter to the Gitea project owners remained unanswered.
The Forgejo project has two major objectives that drive our development and road map:
We are people in control of our future
The first objective relates to how we are organized as a project. It is crucial for Forgejo to guarantee that our product will remain Free Software forever, under the guidance of an open and inclusive community. Forgejo will provide a healthy project governance, so that it can truly focus on the needs of all those people that use our software on a daily basis.
To this end we are very proud that Codeberg.org has decided to become our project’s custodian. Codeberg e.V. is a non-profit organization with a stellar reputation, that is dedicated to the success of the Free Software movement. Providing software development services to FOSS projects, Codeberg is rapidly growing. Currently Codeberg is hosting more than 50k code repositories for about 40k people. Not only will Codeberg take care of the Forgejo domain names and trademarks, but the organization will use Forgejo as the basis for their own services, instead of Gitea.
Forgejo's code base is of course hosted on Codeberg, and by using Woodpecker CI instead of Drone and Matrix instead of Discord, we exclusively rely on Free Software tools.
We will help liberate software development
Our second objective relates to the product that we deliver. Free Software projects are in general heavily focused on coding. But development of quality software has many other areas that need due attention. For the long-term sustainability of any Free Software project many aspects must be taken into account. Successful software products involve the collaboration between many people with different skill sets.
Forgejo has a vision to make software development accessible to everyone. Bring true inclusion and diversity to a field traditionally dominated by technical-skilled people, and where many of the tools used are proprietary services with companies dictating who has access, and who does not.
Our vision offers our community a very exciting path forward. For our development road map we will consider the entirety of the Free Software Development Lifecycle (FSDL) and gradually unlock it to the world. We intend to be part of a growing ecosystem of collaborating Free Software projects that dedicate to this same vision. We see forge federation as a means to open up the development process, and it is here that we will innovate.
Join our adventure
Help make coding social. Join us in our quest, be part of our adventure. Forgejo is not just a code forge. We go beyond coding. We forge Free Software!
Stay tuned to our blog. The coming period we will provide you with many updates about our project organization.
@fnetX here is the latest version of the blog post proposed for publication on the day of the launch at https://blog.codeberg.org.
Codeberg launches Forgejo
In October 2022 the Gitea Ltd for-profit company took over the Gitea project. Brodie Robertson clearly explains the trust issues created by a move that took the entire community by surprise, including the Codeberg presidium and members. This situation was worrisome, and sad. We should not fight our collaborators and mates, but instead against the monopoly of proprietary for-profit platforms; standing united as the Free Software Movement and Gitea Community. Since day 0 (and before), Codeberg („teahub“ back then) was powered by Gitea and is strong in the Gitea ecosystem: e.V.-members help us maintain our current fork of Gitea and prepare Codeberg-specific patches.
The Free Software ecosystem needs companies to be sustainable and the Gitea project is no exception. Paid staff can work with a community of volunteers when a mutual trust exists. Sadly, Gitea Ltd broke that trust by a lack of transparency: its existence was kept a secret during months. After the initial announcement, Gitea Ltd published another blog post but it was still vague and there has been no other communication since. Who are the Gitea Ltd shareholders? Who, among the Gitea maintainers, are employees of Gitea Ltd?
Codeberg needs to run on a Free Software codebase maintained by trustworthy people. And the Gitea community deserves to be in control of the project when they generously volunteer their time. It must not be the company accepting the community. It must be the community generously accepting the company, and Gitea Ltd should be thankful for this, instead of trying to dictate how governance shall work in the future. Luckily Codeberg is in a unique position to reconnect the Gitea community in one place, independent and out of control of Gitea Ltd. And so we did.
The Forgejo project, launched today, is hosted on Codeberg and offers a new home to reunite the Gitea community. Over the past few weeks it got ready to create releases and Codeberg will use Forgejo instead of Gitea starting with version 1.18.0. It provides Codeberg with an essential feature: trust. On a technical level, Forgejo is a drop-in replacement for Gitea, similar to LineageOS which can be used instead of Android.
This is only the beginning and Forgejo will build a roadmap based on what users need. You can become an active member of the Forgejo community now by filling a survey, joining the Matrix space, or following Forgejo in the fediverse at https://floss.social/@forgejo.
For the record, the final version to be published on the codeberg blog is as follows.
fnetx: Okay to be published with author "The Forgejo Contributors". I rephrased one sentence: I don't think we (as Codeberg) should communicate that the Free Software ecosystem needs companies, because we obviously believe in non-profit associations and "company" without any addition usually refers to for-profits. Mentioning that they can help (are one solution) is better IMHO, so I rephrased this.
Codeberg launches Forgejo
In October 2022 the Gitea Ltd for-profit company took over the Gitea project. Brodie Robertson clearly explains the trust issues created by a move that took the entire community by surprise, including the Codeberg presidium and members. This situation was worrisome, and sad. We should not fight our collaborators and mates, but instead against the monopoly of proprietary for-profit platforms; standing united as the Free Software Movement and Gitea Community. Since day 0 (and before), Codeberg („teahub“ back then) was powered by Gitea and is strong in the Gitea ecosystem: e.V.-members help us maintain our current fork of Gitea and prepare Codeberg-specific patches.
Companies can help make the Free Software ecosystem more sustainable, and the Gitea project is no exception. Paid staff can work with a community of volunteers when a mutual trust exists. Sadly, Gitea Ltd broke that trust by a lack of transparency: its existence was kept a secret during months. After the initial announcement, Gitea Ltd published another blog post but it was still vague and there has been no other communication since. Who are the Gitea Ltd shareholders? Who, among the Gitea maintainers, are employees of Gitea Ltd?
Codeberg needs to run on a Free Software codebase maintained by trustworthy people. And the Gitea community deserves to be in control of the project when they generously volunteer their time. It must not be the company accepting the community. It must be the community generously accepting the company, and Gitea Ltd should be thankful for this, instead of trying to dictate how governance shall work in the future. Luckily Codeberg is in a unique position to reconnect the Gitea community in one place, independent and out of control of Gitea Ltd. And so we did.
The Forgejo project, launched today, is hosted on Codeberg and offers a new home to reunite the Gitea community. Over the past few weeks it got ready to create releases and Codeberg will use Forgejo instead of Gitea starting with version 1.18.0. It provides Codeberg with an essential feature: trust. On a technical level, Forgejo is a drop-in replacement for Gitea, similar to LineageOS which can be used instead of Android.
This is only the beginning and Forgejo will build a roadmap based on what users need. You can become an active member of the Forgejo community now by filling a survey, joining the Matrix space, or following Forgejo in the fediverse at https://floss.social/@forgejo.
Great work!
I think the "Why should I, as a Gitea user, should migrate to Forgejo?" could be emphasized more in a terse way.
Maybe this could get achieved by just making It provides Codeberg with an essential feature: trust. bold.
There will be a lot of opportunities to write followup blogs. Do you feel inspired?
The launch is in 24h, here is my understanding of what will happen:
aac445eb2e/src/pages/news/2022-12-15-hello-forgejo.mdin the news sectionAnything else?
Is anyone willing to track the various places where Forgejo launch is communicated? Or should this be closed?
The launch happened ten days ago, the communication associated with it is completed.