AppDB entries are being delete without contacting maintainer by Rozanne

[Klaus Layer]

Hi all,

since several months a user Rozanne is changing AppDB entries without 
contacting the maintainers. Most of the changes so far were minor changes. 
But today I was informed that Rozanne just deleted an entry which was 
maintained by me. According to the email I received, there were duplicated 
entries for the programm Mapsource. I regard deleting entries from Appdb 
without giving the maintainer a chance to backup what they maintained a 
*very* unfriendly act. I would have merged the two entries under one to save 
the valuable information users added to AppDB. Just deleting entries from 
AppDB, deletes information the wine community collected to support using 
wine. Users spent a lot of time and just deleting their work is *not* 
acceptable.

Can someone of the adminstrators of AppDB please make sure that Rozanne stops 
deleting entries from AppDB without informing the maintainers before. I would 
expect to be informed about such an action before and that I as a maintainer 
have the right to discuss was is being delete and what not.

Thanks,

Klaus

[Austin English]

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 2:36 PM, Klaus Layer <klaus.layer(a)gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> since several months a user Rozanne is changing AppDB entries without
> contacting the maintainers. Most of the changes so far were minor changes.
> But today I was informed that Rozanne just deleted an entry which was
> maintained by me. According to the email I received, there were duplicated
> entries for the programm Mapsource. I regard deleting entries from Appdb
> without giving the maintainer a chance to backup what they maintained a
> *very* unfriendly act. I would have merged the two entries under one to save
> the valuable information users added to AppDB. Just deleting entries from
> AppDB, deletes information the wine community collected to support using
> wine. Users spent a lot of time and just deleting their work is *not*
> acceptable.
>
> Can someone of the adminstrators of AppDB please make sure that Rozanne stops
> deleting entries from AppDB without informing the maintainers before. I would
> expect to be informed about such an action before and that I as a maintainer
> have the right to discuss was is being delete and what not.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Klaus
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: AppDB <appdb-noreply(a)winehq.org>
> To: appdb-noreply(a)winehq.org
> Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:42:12 -0600
> Subject: [AppDB] Submitter screenshots deleted
>
> Submitter screenshots deleted
> -------------------------------------------------------
> The screenshots you submitted for MapSource 6.13.7 have been deleted because MapSource 6.13.7 was deleted.
> The action was performed by Rosanne
> Reasons given
> The parent entry was deleted. The reason given for that deletion was:
> Duplicate entry
>
> Best regards.
> The AppDB team
> http://appdb.winehq.org/
>
> If you don't want to receive any other e-mail, please change your preferences:
> http://appdb.winehq.org/preferences.php

Well, Rozanne _is_ an AppDB administrator, hence the permission to
delete those entries.

That said, yes, notice should be given.

-- 
-Austin

[Klaus Layer]

Am Freitag, 6. März 2009 21:42:18 schrieben Sie:
> Well, Rozanne _is_ an AppDB administrator, hence the permission to
> delete those entries.
>
> That said, yes, notice should be given.
>
> -- 
> -Austin

He/she never gave any notice. I just noticed that several weeks ago another 
program has being deleted by that person. Are there any policies for deleting 
AppDB entries? Is there a way to restore the deleted entries?

Regards,

Klaus

[Zachary Goldberg]

2009/3/6 Klaus Layer <klaus.layer(a)gmx.de>:
> Am Freitag, 6. März 2009 21:42:18 schrieben Sie:
> > Well, Rozanne _is_ an AppDB administrator, hence the permission to
> > delete those entries.
> >
> > That said, yes, notice should be given.
> >
> > --
> > -Austin
>
> He/she never gave any notice. I just noticed that several weeks ago another
> program has being deleted by that person. Are there any policies for deleting
> AppDB entries? Is there a way to restore the deleted entries?
>
> Regards,
>
> Klaus

If the entries are sufficiently old I have a backup of the AppDB from
a few weeks ago from which we can recover data if necessary.

-Zach

[Rosanne DiMesio]

> 2009/3/6 Klaus Layer <klaus.layer(a)gmx.de>:
> > Am Freitag, 6. März 2009 21:42:18 schrieben Sie:
> > > Well, Rozanne _is_ an AppDB administrator, hence the permission to
> > > delete those entries.
> > >
> > > That said, yes, notice should be given.
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Austin
> >
> > He/she never gave any notice. I just noticed that several weeks ago another
> > program has being deleted by that person. Are there any policies for deleting
> > AppDB entries? Is there a way to restore the deleted entries?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Klaus
>
> If the entries are sufficiently old I have a backup of the AppDB from
> a few weeks ago from which we can recover data if necessary.
>
> -Zach

I have not been deleting entries per se; I have on occasion merged duplicate entries using "Move child objects." However, I was unaware until now that not everything in the merged entry was being transferred when I did this. I apologize for that; I did not realize that information was being lost. It will not happen again. 


-- 
Rosanne DiMesio <dimesio(a)earthlink.net>

[David Gerard]

2009/3/6 Rosanne DiMesio <dimesio(a)earthlink.net>:
> I have not been deleting entries per se; I have on occasion merged duplicate entries using "Move child objects." However, I was unaware until now that not everything in the merged entry was being transferred when I did this. I apologize for that; I did not realize that information was being lost. It will not happen again.

Suggestion to improve AppDB: make it a free text wiki, with necessary
structure being imposed by those writing it, and complete history
preserved.


- d.

[Ben Klein]

2009/3/7 David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com>:
> Suggestion to improve AppDB: make it a free text wiki, with necessary
> structure being imposed by those writing it, and complete history
> preserved.

2009/3/7 IneedAname <wineappdb(a)googlemail.com>:
> This is why I want a wiki like change log for restoring stuff and checking the history.

A wiki is likely to be highly unsuccessful for AppDB when the focus is
on test data.

Regarding the changelog/history, it'd even be possible to use git to
manage AppDB entries. It's perfectly possible to implement a complete
history without moving to a wiki, but in my opinion only admins should
have access to the history.

Note that history is only useful when entries get edited or deleted.
Most of the time, entries are edited or rejected by admins and
moderators before they are comitted to the AppDB in the first place.
What we're talking about here, one way or another, is housekeeping.

[IneedAname]

On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 00:10:59 +1100
Ben Klein <shacklein(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> A wiki is likely to be highly unsuccessful for AppDB when the focus is
> on test data.

I'm thing about the notes made by the app maintainers.
Not the whole AppDB.

[Ben Klein]

2009/3/8 IneedAname <wineappdb(a)googlemail.com>:
> On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 00:10:59 +1100
> Ben Klein <shacklein(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > A wiki is likely to be highly unsuccessful for AppDB when the focus is
> > on test data.
>
> I'm thing about the notes made by the app maintainers.
> Not the whole AppDB.

Then it's just wasted effort. There is no benefit in turning the
Notes/HOWTO system into a wiki.

[Rosanne DiMesio]

On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 06:19:37 +1100
Ben Klein <shacklein(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/3/8 IneedAname <wineappdb(a)googlemail.com>:
> > On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 00:10:59 +1100
> > Ben Klein <shacklein(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > A wiki is likely to be highly unsuccessful for AppDB when the focus is
> > > on test data.
> >
> > I'm thing about the notes made by the app maintainers.
> > Not the whole AppDB.
>
> Then it's just wasted effort. There is no benefit in turning the
> Notes/HOWTO system into a wiki.

I can think of one possible benefit. There are a lot of apps without maintainers, and there might be users of those apps who would be willing take a few minutes to post bits of useful information in a wiki, but don't want the responsibility of being a maintainer. Sure, they could just post info in a comment, but user comments are buried at the bottom of the page and not in a useful order for finding information quickly. The same goes for comments in test reports--I've found information on needed tweaks buried several reports down from the most recent. 



-- 
Rosanne DiMesio <dimesio(a)earthlink.net>

[IneedAname]

On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 21:36:11 +0100
Klaus Layer <klaus.layer(a)gmx.de> wrote:
> Rozanne just deleted an entry which was 
> maintained by me. According to the email I received, there were duplicated 
> entries for the programm Mapsource. I regard deleting entries from Appdb 
> without giving the maintainer a chance to backup what they maintained a 
> *very* unfriendly act. I would have merged the two entries under one to save 
> the valuable information users added to AppDB. Just deleting entries from 
> AppDB, deletes information the wine community collected to support using 
> wine. Users spent a lot of time and just deleting their work is *not* 
> acceptable.
>
> Can someone of the adminstrators of AppDB please make sure that Rozanne stops

This is why I want a wiki like change log for restoring stuff and checking the history.