[PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[Jakub Kicinski]

There has been more than a few threads which went idle before
the merge window and now people came back to them and started
asking about next steps.

We currently tell people to be patient and not to repost too
often. Our "not too often", however, is still a few orders of
magnitude faster than other subsystems. Or so I feel after
hearing people talk about review rates at LPC.

Clarify in the doc that if the discussion went idle for a week
on netdev, 95% of the time there's no point waiting longer.

Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
---
v2:
 - rephrase the first paragraph
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20231118152232.787e9ea2@kernel.org/

CC: corbet@lwn.net
CC: workflows@vger.kernel.org
CC: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
---
 Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst | 20 +++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
index 7feacc20835e..84ee60fceef2 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
@@ -193,9 +193,23 @@ Review timelines
 Generally speaking, the patches get triaged quickly (in less than
 48h). But be patient, if your patch is active in patchwork (i.e. it's
 listed on the project's patch list) the chances it was missed are close to zero.
-Asking the maintainer for status updates on your
-patch is a good way to ensure your patch is ignored or pushed to the
-bottom of the priority list.
+
+The high volume of development on netdev makes reviewers move on
+from discussions relatively quickly. New comments and replies
+are very unlikely to arrive after a week of silence. If a patch
+is no longer active in patchwork and the thread went idle for more
+than a week - clarify the next steps and/or post the next version.
+
+For RFC postings specifically, if nobody responded in a week - reviewers
+either missed the posting or have no strong opinions. If the code is ready,
+repost as a PATCH.
+
+Emails saying just "ping" or "bump" are considered rude. If you can't figure
+out the status of the patch from patchwork or where the discussion has
+landed - describe your best guess and ask if it's correct. For example::
+
+  I don't understand what the next steps are. Person X seems to be unhappy
+  with A, should I do B and repost the patches?
 
 .. _Changes requested:
 
-- 
2.42.0

Re: [PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[Mark Brown]

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On Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 12:01:09PM -0800, Jakub Kicinski wrote:

> +Emails saying just "ping" or "bump" are considered rude. If you can't figure
> +out the status of the patch from patchwork or where the discussion has
> +landed - describe your best guess and ask if it's correct. For example::

> +  I don't understand what the next steps are. Person X seems to be unhappy
> +  with A, should I do B and repost the patches?

This bit (modulo the reference to patchwork) feels like it's generically
good advice and could find a home in submitting-patches.rst or similar,
not that it isn't worth repeating here.

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[PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[Jakub Kicinski]

There has been more than a few threads which went idle before
the merge window and now people came back to them and started
asking about next steps.

We currently tell people to be patient and not to repost too
often. Our "not too often", however, is still a few orders of
magnitude faster than other subsystems. Or so I feel after
hearing people talk about review rates at LPC.

Clarify in the doc that if the discussion went idle for a week
on netdev, 95% of the time there's no point waiting longer.

Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
---
CC: corbet@lwn.net
CC: workflows@vger.kernel.org
CC: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
---
 Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst | 19 ++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
index 7feacc20835e..9debfff3c65e 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
@@ -193,9 +193,22 @@ Review timelines
 Generally speaking, the patches get triaged quickly (in less than
 48h). But be patient, if your patch is active in patchwork (i.e. it's
 listed on the project's patch list) the chances it was missed are close to zero.
-Asking the maintainer for status updates on your
-patch is a good way to ensure your patch is ignored or pushed to the
-bottom of the priority list.
+
+On the other hand, due to the volume of development discussions on netdev
+are very unlikely to be reignited after a week of silence. If patch is
+no longer active in patchwork and the thread went idle for more than
+a week - clarify the next steps and/or post the next version.
+
+For RFC postings specifically, if nobody responded in a week - reviewers
+either missed the posting or have no strong opinions. If the code is ready
+repost as a PATCH.
+
+Emails saying just "ping" or "bump" are considered rude. If you can't figure
+out the status of the patch from patchwork or where the discussion has
+landed - describe your best guess and ask if it's correct. For example::
+
+  I don't understand what the next steps are. Person X seems to be unhappy
+  with A, should I do B and repost the patches?
 
 .. _Changes requested:
 
-- 
2.42.0

Re: [PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[Andrew Lunn]

> +On the other hand, due to the volume of development discussions on netdev
> +are very unlikely to be reignited after a week of silence.

My English parse falls over on 'are', and wants to backtrack and try
alternatives.

Maybe:

On the other hand, due to the volume of development discussions on
netdev, after a week of silence further discussions are very unlikely
to occur without prompting.

	Andrew

Re: [PATCH net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

[Jakub Kicinski]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2023 20:09:43 +0100 Andrew Lunn wrote:
> > +On the other hand, due to the volume of development discussions on netdev
> > +are very unlikely to be reignited after a week of silence.  
> 
> My English parse falls over on 'are', and wants to backtrack and try
> alternatives.
> 
> Maybe:
> 
> On the other hand, due to the volume of development discussions on
> netdev, after a week of silence further discussions are very unlikely
> to occur without prompting.

Hm. The whole "On the other hand, due to".. felt a bit clunky from 
the start, maybe that's the problem? Is this better?

 Generally speaking, the patches get triaged quickly (in less than
 48h). But be patient, if your patch is active in patchwork (i.e. it's
 listed on the project's patch list) the chances it was missed are close to zero.
+
+The high volume of development on netdev makes reviewers move on
+from discussions relatively quickly. New comments and replies 
+are very unlikely to arrive after a week of silence. If patch is
+no longer active in patchwork and the thread went idle for more than
+a week - clarify the next steps and/or post the next version.