[J3] (SC22WG5.6196) Re: (SC22WG5.6194) [EXTERNAL] RE: [ukfortran] October meeting visa invitation letter

[Ondřej Čertík]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2020, at 10:18 AM, Steve Lionel via J3 wrote:
> On 4/29/2020 11:34 AM, Reuben D. Budiardja via J3 wrote:
> > Gitlab is an open-source alternative with very similar core features 
> > that can hosted "on-prem" (which is the main reason we have it at the 
> > Lab), so J3 can stand up its own instance if this is the way we want 
> > to go. This would be something I'd be happy to volunteer to help running. 
> 
> Gitlab is far too much for what we want to do here - at least for now.

GitLab is equivalent to GitHub for our purposes. We use the J3 GitHub repository to discuss in issues, and then draft proposals collaboratively using pull requests. So GitLab is exactly what we need.

I suggest to stick to GitHub. If there is truly a need to have the platform under J3 control, then let's switch to GitLab and host it ourselves. Thank you Reuben for the offer to host it --- I can help also (lots of experience hosting GitLab internally).

However, let's not have 10 different places where discussion happens. If we move to a J3 site, then we'll import the project from GitHub to GitLab (all the issues / discussions), and we will close the GitHub project.

Furthermore, it took me a lot of effort to get the community using the J3 site. I spent a *lot* of effort from October 2019 to get the J3 GitHub repository up and going (some days I spent many hours, I don't know on average, perhaps 1h a day). If I didn't do that, the effort would not be successful. It does not "just happen".

If we move away, we would point people to the new place, but you should not underestimate the effort needed for people to get used to the new site and to actually use it.  Unless there is a really compelling reason, then let's not move it and rather just keep using the J3 GitHub as it is, with the existing community. 

Ondrej