[tor-project] update on ticket system discussion

[Gaba]

Hi!

There has been some discussion in the 'corridors' of Tor and in the last
meeting face to face during the session on 'internal tooling' and
specifically about tickets system. I'm sending this mail to try to
summarize what the discussion has been until now, make it transparent
and try to get an agreement on how to move forward.


Problem:
- Trac software is not being mantained (from our perspective of users of
Trac this is a bomb getting ready to explode) [0]


Solution
- Move out into a better (possible feature parity with what we use now
AND integration between project management tool and tickets) and
mantained ticketing system.


Discussion until now
- A few years ago there was a survey [1] on which features people would
like to see in a new ticketing system.
- There is a ticket [2] that has a discussion on features needed and a
document [3] that brainstorm features between trac and gitlab.
- The last meeting in Stockholm there has been several discussions on
what is needed. [4]
- In 2017 Hiro and the network team experimented with the oniongit.eu
Gitlab instance.
- In 2019, a test instance was setup, called "dip.torproject.org"[5],
that a few projects are using right now to test its use.


We are mostly considering Gitlab (until now) because:
1. We can host it ourselves and not have other company control the data.
2. It is open source [6].
3. It is mantained [7].
4. It supports the project management tool that we are interested in.


Before moving forward we need:
1. Consensus or a clear compromise on what to move into.
2. A plan on how the migration to a new ticketing system will happen. I
started drafting it here (thinking that Gitlab would be the new one)
[8]. This plan is still a work in progress and we will continue doing it
when we all agree on which system to move into.

cheers,
gaba

[0] https://trac.edgewall.org/roadmap
[1]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V4Faq2y9vv8XTp-OADl4YRMTiRB0G9DHvj23NRpwzcc/edit#gid=0
[2] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/30857
[3] https://nc.riseup.net/s/TYX37BDT4eQfTiW
[4]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2019Stockholm/Notes/InternalTooling
[5] https://dip.torproject.org
[6] https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org
[7] https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/roadmap?layout=MONTHS
[8] https://nc.riseup.net/s/SnQy3yMJewRBwA7

-- 
Project Manager: Network, Anti-Censorship and Metrics teams and OONI support
gaba at torproject.org
she/her are my pronouns
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