In addition to questions and discussion, source code patches containing bugfixes or improvements are also posted here regularly, so it's a good idea to follow this group even when things are running well at your site. Traffic is pretty low (<10 messages per day), so this shouldn't be a real hardship.
Ongoing development and releases are coordinated by Bob Sloane (sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu), who has given generously of his time and machines to fill in when Geoff Huston had to drop this role. If you're thinking about making any major revisions to News, it's probably a good idea to check with him first, to make sure someone else isn't already working on the same thing. Apart from this informal coordination, however, there is no structure to News development -- anyone is welcome to post their suggestions and code to the newsgroup, where sites which so desire can pick it up and use it. Often, if it does good things and doesn't complicate News management unduly or have any nasty side effects, it will be incorporated into the next release as well.
In order to provide access to source code patches, an archive of all patches posted to the newsgroup since the first alpha release of version 6.1 is maintained at the site genetics.upenn.edu, where it is available via anonymous ftp. For more information on what patches are available, and how to use them, see the files $ReadMe.Txt and $Patches.List in the [.ANU_News.Patches] directory at that site. If you need patches and don't have access to ftp, send mail to bailey@genetics.upenn.edu, and I'll try to get you the patches you need.
One last note -- News continues to exist because of the willingness of people to contribute their time and code to keeping it viable. It's a very nice package as it stands, but there's always a need for progress. If you've made any improvements to News, please share them with the rest of us; chances are there's someone out there (maybe lots of us) who can benefit from your work. Also, when you run up against a thorny problem, please remember that all News support is done in the (often not so) spare time of people on the net, so the response to your postings may not be as fast as you might get for a commercial product. Nonetheless, most questions are answered within a day or so -- not bad for an all-volunteer effort.
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