launchpadblog

Hi,

Today we have updated the Launchpad Legal page [1] with the following changes:

1) The Dev wiki [2] is now called out explicitly as having a CC content license.  Previously the Dev wiki proclaimed it was licensed under CC but was not listed on our Legal page.

2) The Content License section was updated for clarity. This was a housekeeping task and does not effect any Legal changes.

3) Future notifications of legal changes will be sent only to the Launchpad Announcement list [3].  Previously they were sent to the Launchpad Users list and News blog.

Joey

[1] https://help.launchpad.net/Legal
[2] https://dev.launchpad.net/
[3] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Launchpad-announce

Hi,

Today we have updated the Launchpad Terms of Use. Specifically, the section on Automated Querying was updated and extended to reflect the addition of our Public APIs. Please take a moment to inspect the changes.

Thanks,

Joey Stanford

Hi,

Today I’m happy to announce two changes which appear on the Launchpad Legal page.

1. The Launchpad Logo, previously unlicensed, is now licensed as “Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales”. “No Derivative” was chosen to preserve our branding integrity.
2. The Launchpad Help wiki documentation and the Launchpad News blog, previously unlicensed, are now licensed as “Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales”.

These changes have been made in response to our users and other commercial entities inquiring if they can display/reuse/remix these items. Previously, any non-Launchpad use required explicit permission (except as permitted by fair-use).

Please visit the Launchpad Legal page for the full details and links to the Creative Commons Licenses.

Joey Stanford

Hey – quick update from Matthew Revell: Launchpad’s looking a bit different today! That’s because we’ve begun the roll-out of our next major version of Launchpad.

In fact, you may already have seen mention of Launchpad 2.0 in the press already, such as at The Register and Ars Technica.

There’ll be more from us next week, with a full run-down of what 2.0’s all about. Until then, I’ll hand back to Joey:

When designing the updated interface, many existing user interface bugs were taken into consideration as well as taking inspiration from some of the websites that we love to use. The interface updates are part of a larger effort to make Launchpad easier to use. The first noticeable changes deployed with our previous release, 1.2.6.

Matthew Paul Thomas, who looks after Launchpad’s UI, explained the changes:

“We realize that if you’ve been using Launchpad for a while, these changes may take a bit of getting used to. But we’re confident that the new designs will be more efficient once you’re familiar with them. We also expect they’ll be easier for people using Launchpad for the first time.

“They also pave the way for even simpler interfaces in future Launchpad releases, where you’ll be able to click on something and edit it in place.”

As Matthew said, we are working toward the ability to allow in-place editing where possible. These changes you see in Launchpad today are a step in that direction.

We will be making a few additional adjustments to the interface over the next few weeks as part of our polishing efforts.

Hi,

As you hopefully have learned from various sources (blog posts, launchpad-users mailing list, Launchpad Announcement list, Launchpad podcast, beta testing on Staging and Edge, etc) Launchpad’s user interface has been updated based on input from our usability study conducted at UDS Boston and also existing UI bug reports. We plan to deploy these updates this week into production assuming no major issues are uncovered. With this in mind, I’m asking everyone who is willing to please help us test these changes.

If you want to play around with the new UI in our sandbox, head over to https://staging.launchpad.net. Changes here will not affect production.

If you want to use Launchpad with the new UI, head over to https://edge.launchpad.net. Changes here will affect production.

Please report all UI related bugs you find at https://launchpad.net/launchpad-project/+filebug. We will be committing UI updates daily to Staging and Edge until Wednesday and then polishing updates over the next few weeks to address any priority issues that might be uncovered.

UI changes are always rather disruptive and we thank you for your patience and understanding as we make this transition. We hope you will be pleased by the end result.

Thank you!

Joey Stanford

We’re very pleased to announce the results of the Launchpad Logo Contest!
(See https://help.launchpad.net/logo)

The number and quality of submissions took all of us by surprise. We are
immensely pleased with the results and are in awe at what the community
has done. We had so many interesting designs that it was very difficult for
us to declare a single winner.

However, there was one design that we felt embodied what Launchpad is all
about. We were impressed by how it summarised so much about Launchpad and
yet remained beautifully simple.

So, we’re delighted to say that the winner is Eugene Tretyak!

You can view his design here: https://help.launchpad.net/logo/winning-entry

The center of the design represents how Launchpad makes it easy for
people to collaborate and connect with one another, while the surrounding
facets represent the different services that Launchpad provides.

Above all, it shows that all projects are themselves a gem and, when
combined with other gems, can turn into something brilliant.

Eugene is both an Ubuntu member and Kubuntu developer and will receive
an official Ubuntu Messenger Bag.

There are also two runners-up whose designs made the selection process very
challenging for us. Mariana Ravicole and Ambroise Coutand will each receive
a 25 GBP gift certificate to the Canonical Store in recognition of their
highly competitive and very popular designs.

Additionally, we would also like to give an honourable mention to Donn
Ingle for his contributions. Donn’s varied designs were a popular
favourite.

Finally, the Launchpad Team would like to thank everyone who participated
in the contest. We are humbled by the response and are deeply thankful to
all the participants.

Joey Stanford

Hi,

Since the last Launchpad release you may have noticed a few emails and blog
posts referring to unexpected issues with Launchpad. I thought you might
like to know more about what was causing them, and how we are addressing them.

Launchpad’s operational environment is hosted on several machines in order to
provide adequate response times given our user load. Previously, we had to
maintain separate, and complex, configuration settings for each of the servers.
This was not very conducive to developing and deploying new features, nor
supporting the existing infrastructure. The situation was becoming
unmaintainable, and we had made careful plans to resolve these problems.

To address this limitation, we migrated the existing configuration settings
over to a standard, site-wide, hierarchical system. We’re confident that this
new configuration system will also provide us with a much more robust, stable
and maintainable operational environment. However, the rollout of this new
system has resulted in an undesirable level of shake-out due to the
complexities of the Launchpad services involved and the complexities of the
old configuration system.

On behalf of the entire Launchpad Development Team, I’d like to offer our
sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We ask you
for your continued understanding as we seek to improve the Launchpad service.

Joey Stanford
Launchpad Releases Team Manager

Hi Gang,

Just a quick heads up that we uncovered a problem today with Launchpad Mailing List notifications. You may have received a mailing list notification from Launchpad with a funny URL that looks like

https://xmlrpc.lp.internal/~rinchen/+editemails

These courtesy emails are normally sent out (with correct URLs) when a team you are a member of creates a new Launchpad Mailing List. The email is still valid despite the incorrect URL.

You should visit your Launchpad person page and view your email settings. At the bottom you will see “Mailing list subscriptions”. From here you can manage your Launchpad mailing list subscriptions.

Here’s a short cut to that page: https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+editemails

Sorry for the inconvenience. We should have this fixed by tomorrow.

Joey Stanford

Announcing the Launchpad Logo Community Design Contest.

What: Design a new logo for Launchpad
When: Now through 31 March 2008
How: See http://help.launchpad.net/logo for more details and official rules
Prize: Winner will receive an Ubuntu Messenger Bag

Earlier today we had intended to roll out some bug fixes following the Launchpad release yesterday. We do this from time to time following a release as needed to ensure the most stable environment for our users. These normally take only a few minutes to implement.

Tonight during the roll-out process we encountered an unexpected error that did not present itself during our normal QA checks. The solution to this problem requires some additional research on our part. We believe we will need to update data in Launchpad early next week in order to resolve this issue. This should not involve any further downtime.

Unfortunately this issue affects the feature in bug #50663 – “There should be a report to show Needs Info bugs that have had a response”. That feature will not work until we resolve the current situation.

We apologize for the disruption in service.