Meeting summary from April 23 Zoom meeting

A meeting to discuss CPAN Testers issues and set a path for the project moving forward was held via Zoom on Wednesday, 23 April 2025, at 1900 UTC.

Attendees:
 • D Ruth Holloway (GeekRuthie, host)
 • Doug Bell (preaction)
 • James Keenan (kid51)
 • Scott Baker (scottchiefbaker)
 • Ferenc Erki (FErki)
 • Christian Walde (Mithaldu)
 • Slaven Rezic (slaven)
 • Samuel Smith (esaym)
 • Lukas Mai (mauke)
Not present, but mentioned as supporting this effort:
 • Chris Williams (BingoS)
After introductions, Doug Bell, who has been maintaining CPANTesters since 2009, gave a brief presentation (slides here:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I2JYX2Z1mVXjLqxW-ZsmSFUD0VC77sZopaP25ISI-gc/edit#slide=id.g34faddc8e62_2_56) detailing high-level priorities going forward.  The database currently contains somewhat over 150 million test results.

In his presentation, Doug subdivided the tasks into three broad categories: Stability, Continuity, and Enhancement.  Specific tasks and issues were detailed in each category (enhanced by additional items mentioned on IRC prior to the meeting -- DRH)

* Stability:*
 • Shutting down legacy systems
 • Horizontal scaling, as needed
 • Fastly failover
 • Identification and suppression of bot traffic causing ~10 hits/second*
*
*Continuity*
 • Data management & replication
 • Configuration management/automation
 • Monitoring/alerting
*Enhacements*
 • Personalization of email reporting (ability to subscribe to packages not your own)
 • Data enrichment
 • User experience (incl. restoration of statistical functionalies)
 • Personalization/enhancement of RSS feeds
Doug is working on getting SSH keys set up for several individuals so that they can begin exploring existing systems and working on strategies.  Five of the attendees are attending Toolchain Summit next week, and will be working together on a number of issues, and triaging current GitHub issues for actions.

In response to a question from Scott, Doug expressed his desire to smoothly hand over overall control of the CPAN Testers project and its infrastructure to a team, rather than being its sole operator and maintainer.

Group communications and documentation were discussed; IRC is not useful for Doug, and at present, email is the best way to get in touch with him. The meeting identified a need for a communication platform that would function well for everyone--GitHub discussions were mentioned, as well as using Signal or Matrix for more real-time discussions.  Matrix is easily bridgeable to IRC, to keep legacy participants involved.

*Immediate Actions:*
 • preaction: Set up SSH accesses
 • preaction: Evaluate GitHub Discussions and/or Signal/Matrix as a communications platform.
 • GeekRuthie/scottchiefbaker: Investigate server load issues and identify pain points
 • GeekRuthie: Review Schema module code and evaluate potential migration to PostgreSQL
*Actions for PTS May 1-5*
 • Team: Triage GitHub issues, possibly classifying by three divisions used in presentation
 • preaction/Mithaldu: Evaluate the possibility of merging the five repositories into one or two
 • Team: Discuss and begin development on a test transport for testing clients that uses the V3 API
 • Team: Begin creating documentation (map) of the CPAN Testers landscape
 • GeekRuthie: Prepare after-action report on PTS for the CPAN Testers email list.*
*
*Possible future actions*
 • preaction: Work with Perl Foundation regarding domain ownership and long-term project sustainability.
The meeting adjourned at 2040 UTC.

On a personal note: 

As the host of the meeting, I wish to thank everyone for their attendance and participation. Collectively, the attendees possess nearly 150 years worth of Perl expertise, with several of us being 20-plus year veterans in the Perl ecosystem; we do have the expertise and skillsets among ourselves to resolve the present issues with CPAN Testers, and help the project continue sustainably for years to come.  Everyone brought enthusiasm and good ideas, and offered up their specific skills to help.

Respectfully submitted,

D Ruth Holloway (GeekRuthie)