Contributors wanted!

[StudentWeis]

There are two dozen PRs here that have not been processed. I do not know why

I love Scoop and hope it keeps getting better.

[amorphobia]

It's nearly 100 now.

[ivaquero]

Over 100 already.

[StarsbySea]

over 200 already 😂

[kriswilk]

Found this thread when I wondered why a simple PR (#10526) hadn't been reviewed/merged since mid-Feb. There seems to have been an absolute flood of new manifest PRs recently. Has there been some organized initiative to add all these new applications?

I don't have a problem waiting in line for review. But I've also noticed many newer PRs of a similar nature already merged. Perhaps just a case of the newest activity getting the attention....?

[HUMORCE]

Perhaps just a case of the newest activity getting the attention....?

No, but fixes and improvements of manifests will be prioritised.

[kriswilk]

Perhaps just a case of the newest activity getting the attention....?

No, but fixes and improvements of manifests will be prioritised.

I agree, that is perfectly logical! I only wondered because of PRs like #10925 that was merged last week. It is based on request #10856 from only 3 weeks ago.

I also still wonder about the sudden massive influx of new manifest PRs (many from the same author). Have these all been individually/specifically requested, or has there been some kind of "farming/harvesting" of apps to add to scoop? It just seems like a lot all at once. And some seem rather obscure.

Just to be clear, I know yours is a virtually thankless job. I appreciate your effort!! Thank you! 👍👍

[HUMORCE]

Some PRs have other contributors testing, providing feedback, or reviewing within them, this means that there are people paying attention to these manifests.

[zsuatem]

Any chance of faster pull request merging? There is still a lot of stuff still from 2022 😭
I started to move what I want to have up to date to my bucket because, unfortunately, currently there is a very long wait for all requests.

I hope this will change because Scoop is for me the best of the three Scoop, Winget, Chocolatey and creating your own bucket just to have a new program or a newer version is lame 🫤

[HUMORCE]

Any chance of faster pull request merging?

If a PR is working properly and meets expectations(what it's going to fix/resolve), leave your feedback in the PR.

[wickles]

There has not been a single new manifest merged in over 2 months. How can we improve the situation? Do you need more contributors to help review? How can we help or get involved? @HUMORCE it looks like you were the only maintainer left contributing for most of this year!

[wickles]

@rashil2000 can you help get the community sorted here? It looks like you might be the only maintainer left contributing to main (!)

[rashil2000]

Hi @wickles!

The ScoopInstaller org as a whole gets a huge amount of activity each day, as such it's infeasible for a couple of people to maintain all repos. I primarily handle the Scoop core and Main bucket repos.
We do need more bucket maintainers - especially for the Extras bucket since it's the largest one. I can add people who can review/test PRs for manifest fixes, new applications and for triaging issues.

[octaviordz]

Hi @rashil2000 not familiar with the ScoopInstaller process (just read a bit some time ago) but I could help with the "Extra bucket" in specific with the software that I use (installed by scoop) vscode and gitextensions for example.

[wickles]

@rashil2000 I could help with review here. I maintain some external scoop buckets already.

Process seems straightforward. Is there additional testing and auditing that needs to be done for each manifest beyond the automated verification? Is there some admission criteria beyond having an issue with some indication of popularity by stars or some such?

[HUMORCE]

There didn't seem to be any active maintainers after I started traveling. I carry apple silicon mbp only, so I will not reviewing PRs that need to be tested for now. I merged some PRs that include feedback via community or LGTM(literally).

@rasa We need more maintainers to keep the rolling update buckets are working.

[pureby]

@rashil2000 I can only imagine how tough and laborious it is to maintain a huge and growing project like this with just a couple of people; big thanks for your hard work!

I'm not a software developer, but maybe I can help with a couple ideas:

1. Clear, transparent and complete documentation on manifests + step-by-step instruction "for dummies".
   I know many people (including myself) would like to contribute to the project, but simply have no idea where to start because the process of creating, reviewing and editing manifests is poorly documented and not at all transparent to an "average" user (read: power user). I even know a couple developers who had trouble submitting their own software to Scoop, because they struggled to understand manifests, and referred to the process as "going through hell".

2. Calling out community for help.
   When doing scoop update or scoop status, Scoop could print a short text message asking community for help, e.g.:
   Scoop project needs more reviewers! Visit https://scoop.sh/contribute to see how you can help.

There is no shame in acknowledging the problem and asking for help, and I'm sure many people, myself included, are willing to invest some of their free time in the project, if provided with proper tools to do the job (starting with a clear, complete and non-self-contradictory documentation).

I think proper documentation will eliminate the problem at it's root, as I know for a fact that many, many people out there absolutely love and admire Scoop and have time to invest in the project but lack the skills of a professional software developer. Those skills should not be required for a simple manifest review.

[rasa]

Perhaps we need a plan on how to divy up the work? I currently maintain our Nirsoft bucket. @pureby @StudentWeis @kriswilk @wickles @zsuatem @octaviordz Perhaps volunteers can sign up to manage a portion of the Extras bucket? Say, if we get two volunteers/teams, they each take half the repo (split alphabetically). If three, they each take 1/3, etc.

We could even have a GitHub Action auto-assign to each member/team.

[rashil2000]

Hi @aliesbelik - I've seen many contributions from you in the Main bucket, would you be interested in this?

[aliesbelik]

Hi @rashil2000, sounds interesting to me.
I can't guarantee the same level of engagement in future but if my occasional contributions and reviews (mostly pretty trivial) can be useful at the moment, I'd be happy to participate.

[rashil2000]

Thank you @aliesbelik! I've sent you an invite for this repository.

[rashil2000]

Hi all!

I'd firstly like to apologize for being absent in the past few months - I started my first job and managing time has been a herculean effort.

1. Clear, transparent and complete documentation on manifests + step-by-step instruction "for dummies".
   I know many people (including myself) would like to contribute to the project, but simply have no idea where to start because the process of creating, reviewing and editing manifests is poorly documented and not at all transparent to an "average" user (read: power user). I even know a couple developers who had trouble submitting their own software to Scoop, because they struggled to understand manifests, and referred to the process as "going through hell".
2. Calling out community for help.
   When doing scoop update or scoop status, Scoop could print a short text message asking community for help, e.g.:
   Scoop project needs more reviewers! Visit https://scoop.sh/contribute to see how you can help.

I love these ideas - especially the second one - backlinking either to the Contributing Guide or the Scoop Wiki in the command's output will definitely increase visibility.

I like @rasa's idea too - let us know if anyone's willing to help out and we will add you as contributor.

I have pinned this discussion on this repo's Discussion page.

[StudentWeis]

Maybe I can provide some help

[rashil2000]

@StudentWeis I have added you as maintainer.

[StudentWeis]

Okay, I will try my best to fulfill my duties.

[jasongodev]

I've been volunteering for quite some time. What I experience as a bottleneck is that reviewers like me can only do as much. I can only check, recommend, and research what's the best for each of the apps. Most of the time the manifests are ready to be merged on the spot. But as a reviewer I can only triage them by putting my comments.

I think what we need are more maintainers or some other role like specific app maintainers that can merge manifests.

Another issue is that Scoop is centralized approval while the likes of Chocolatey has assigned maintainers for each apps. While Scoop's approach makes the buckets more consistent as per Scoop's guidelines, this centralized approach causes backlogs when maintainers are not available. In Chocolatey, the maintainers are closely related with their respective apps, some are members of their own dev team. This makes the apps individually updated and does not affect the whole ecosystem.

With that, maybe we can open the apps for orphaning. So avid users can volunteer to be a dedicated maintainer of that particular manifest. Most of the times these avid users also knows best when it comes to the quirks of the installation process and the changes in the download pages and hashes.

[rashil2000]

I've been volunteering for quite some time. What I experience as a bottleneck is that reviewers like me can only do as much. I can only check, recommend, and research what's the best for each of the apps. Most of the time the manifests are ready to be merged on the spot. But as a reviewer I can only triage them by putting my comments.

The maintainer role (as mentioned above) gives you merge access, btw.

Another issue is that Scoop is centralized approval while the likes of Chocolatey has assigned maintainers for each apps. While Scoop's approach makes the buckets more consistent as per Scoop's guidelines, this centralized approach causes backlogs when maintainers are not available. In Chocolatey, the maintainers are closely related with their respective apps, some are members of their own dev team. This makes the apps individually updated and does not affect the whole ecosystem.

With that, maybe we can open the apps for orphaning. So avid users can volunteer to be a dedicated maintainer of that particular manifest. Most of the times these avid users also knows best when it comes to the quirks of the installation process and the changes in the download pages and hashes.

I feel like there are too many applications in the buckets for this to be successful, even if we start now.

[Elkiwa]

This is something I've been wondering for a while. Have scoop considered utilizing Github's CODEOWNERS to alleviate part of the ownership problem? The system doesn't require every file to have a dedicated maintainer.

[rashil2000]

This is something I've been wondering for a while. Have scoop considered utilizing Github's CODEOWNERS to alleviate part of the ownership problem? The system doesn't require every file to have a dedicated maintainer.

I don't think this'll help us much in the long run - as it will focus only on a small subset of manifests (since finding any maintainers is already hard) and we'll not be able to keep up the repo as a whole.

[amreus]

Is there some role such as "reviewer"? Perhaps there is a bot that could commit requests if the request is reviewed and approved by some number of "reviewers"?

[aliesbelik]

Looks like the bucket still needs more attention and/from more maintainers.

I plan to reduce my activity here (which, however, is still insufficient) so if someone has enough time and enthusiasm to fight entropy more or less regularly, now is the time.

[Fredolx]

I'd be willing to contribute my time to review PRs

[aliesbelik]

I am addressing first of all those participants who already have maintenance access in Extras bucket (since I don't have rights to add new maintainers).
New candidates should be reviewed and approved by someone with administrative privileges (@rashil2000, I suppose).

[niheaven]

Please start the review now and inform me; I will proceed with the merge soon and then appoint you as maintainers following some qualified reviews. Thank you for all your contributions!