Reflecting on 0.4 and the future

After the busy holiday season it’s a good time to take stock of what happened with the project recently. Further down I discuss the lessons my future self should remember and discuss the roadmap. This is a summary of developments during the 0.4 branch:

30.10: 0.4.0 features and 0.4.0a fixes
31.10: 0.4.0b features and fixes
07.11: Server migration
11.11: Server maintenance (the infamous PSU issue)
12.11: 0.4.0c features and fixes
18.11: 0.4.0d features (downtime scheduler)
20.11: Content update
02.12: 0.4.0e features (daily shows scheduled)
09.12: 0.4.0f features (series slots added)
13.12: 0.4.0f fixes (effectively 0.4.0f1)
16.12: Outage begins after server relocation
21.12: Restoration after reversing server relocation
23.12: 0.4.0g features (support for fixed-date shows and weekly “themes”)
24.12: 'Countdown to 2020' event begins
01.01: 'Countdown to 2020' event ends
12.01: 0.4.0g1 fixes
15.01: 0.4.0g2 fixes

Lessons for 2020

• Listen to your own feelings about the project, especially when it’s criticism
• Don’t be afraid to abandon features that don’t work
• When things go wrong, consider if it’s catastrophic or manageable
• Make sure your version format can support every eventuality
• Work out a balance between feature and content releases
• If it isn’t broken, don’t fix/ change/ touch it without good reason!

Roadmap update

0.4.1 - To mute or to unmute?
0.4.2 - Vote for your soundtrack Does that track really fit the video?
0.4.3 - To be announced
0.4.4 - To be announced
0.4.5 - To be announced
0.5.0 - To be announced (hint: involves a lot of rebuilding)

In developing the scheduling system I learnt a great deal about what works, for the stream and my development process. After developing the original format, new shows every 30 minutes, I found that replaying the same content at short intervals became boring for me and the voting system was never used. It is never nice to admit something you created is bad, but accepting this feeling and being unafraid to embrace change can be good (as long as we also accept perfection is unrealistic and that there is a logical end to this struggle). If I am bored with what’s playing, it’s certain that others will be as well. So, 0.4.0b was my initial response and from there I kept iterating on the format. Updating the on-screen schedule’s format, removing the voting system and toggling what’s shown on the information panel were the simple changes. Storing state and continuing shows at their previous point, episodic content played at particular times, daily shows and fixed-date shows were challenging to implement, but ultimately improved upon the purpose of the stream.

The version numbers the stream had gone through may look strange, but the format reflects how I develop software. The agile methodology has been my favoured approach for years and it shines when you need to iterate- the final version in the 0.4 branch is radically different from the first. When something went wrong the first consideration was time- do I fix it now, wait until the next version or is is manageable in the short-term? Some of these decisions worked out well, others not so much. Fixing some playback issues in the last few days was absolutely the right call, but sticking with Streamlabs OBS lead to many stream crashes. However, Streamlabs OBS has broadcast my stream for many hours at a time and its suite of tools gave the stream a headstart where overlays are concerned. There is a technical problem that consumed time, but was there a good reason to invest time testing other streaming software? My answer came once I was satisfied with 0.4- the next version will take more time than the previous iterations, use it to test other streaming software too! So, no there was no good reason before, but now is the perfect time.

The roadmap is still in place and I am working on 0.4.1 and 0.4.2 simultaneously because they both demand a better-structured storage system. 0.4.2 will now aim to harmonise the video and music, instead of having a completely random playlist system. I have an idea of priorities for 0.4.3-0.4.5, but I will announce them once I have 0.4.1 released. All of this work is being done with objectives extending to 0.5, but rest assured this work will have little effect on the existing stream's bot. Vetting, compressing and adding material to the archive has been a time-consuming process that would benefit from some automation.