Flask needs a way to announce new versions

[arnuschky]

I think that flask needs some sort of dedicated channel to announce critical updates (or in general, new versions).

The reason is that flask grew to a point where there is a lot of activity on the repository and the general mailing list. Listening on the mailing list or "watching" the repository for maintenance-only projects in order to catch new critical updates means siphoning through a lot of messages.

Would setting up something like a separate announce list be possible?

[HennyN]

Thanks for raising the issue! If I understand you right then you would like to find new ways to get maintainer of existing flask installation to response fast if a new critical update is released.
A seperated mailing list is certainly one way to do this. I am wondering if signed release tags as described here (http://git-scm.com/book/ch2-6.html) would help to keep up the trust in new releases as the development team gets biggger.

[ghost]

Surprise! We do have a mailing list ;-) flask at librelist dot com

[untitaker]

Yeah i also think that announcing new releases over that list would suffice, it's not like there is a lot happening there anyway.

[HennyN]

gioi actually arnuschky nor I noted that there is no mailing list already up and running for flask. As far as I can see has flask currently just one mailinglist http://flask.pocoo.org/mailinglist/
arnuschky suggested to create an other list: the flask announce mailing list. Creating one is not the problem (list at librelist.com), it is just that you end up maintaining two mailing lists. (Which suggest to me more work and less cake…). Yes, you can automate what you send out but somehow is a new release is actually a good time to celebrate or at least have a chat why you should get going to install the update made by the team.
The team in charge of this communication would be the release manager. They would give people who have not been in touch with the current software status indicator why they should trust that the time and effort of updating, leads to an more awesome flask installation.

untitaker I agree that an announcement on the list is enough for people who are actively involved e.g. contributor but this might not be the case for all people that are in charge of a flask installation. So the question is, how could release manager encourge an faster uptake for non contributor flask installation maintainer. Time for tea.

[HennyN]

Okay coming back to the get the communication between release manager and maintainer going. I am suggesting to turn everyday objects into release indicator. https://vimeo.com/78989037

[untitaker]

I am sorry, but i am asking myself how this hardware project is related to the issue proposed here. If you need a programmatic way to determine whether a new Flask version has been released, PyPI or git tags are a way to do it.

[arnuschky]

To clarify: I am an administrator of a group of flask deployment - "maintainer" was a poor choice of word, but maintainers might have the same issues.

As an admin of large installations, you can't follow all the mailing lists and filter for security updates. You'll follow your OS vendor/distribution announce mailing lists, and the lists of each individual software package that are installed on the various systems. In our case, flask is one of them. I won't follow the "normal" mailing list as it has several messages a day - not much for a discussion list, but too much when it's one list out of 20 you'll follow only because of security updates.

If there exists a robust way using git tags or similar to catch security updates, fair enough, I'll hack up a script. But currently there is no solution, as far as I see it.

[untitaker]

There certainly exists a robust way to catch all updates, but that's probably not what you need. I take your point, i'm now +1 on a separate list.

[mitsuhiko]

I will work on something with the new website.

[jeffwidman]

The Flask mailing list averages at most 1-2 messages a week right now.

[jeffwidman]

Should this be moved to https://github.com/pallets/meta/issues and expanded to create a way for folks to subscribe to announcements about whatever Pallets projects they want updates on??

[untitaker]

This is actually fixed with the new blog, where at least major releases are announced.

Please refile against the tracker linked by @jeffwidman if this is not sufficient.