How to release a milestone

Follow these steps:

1. Write changelog
   • Create new wiki page for changelog, naming convention is "Changelog_x.x", see Changelog_0.7 for example and use Changelog_x.x as a template.
   • Where possible use past tense verbs to describe changes, so it's clear what has been done. Start lines with "Added", "Changed", "Fixed" and "Removed". The ticket title itself often is not enough to describe a change.
   • First list all "Added" items, because that's what most people are interested in, then "Changed" functionality. "Fixed" and "Removed" go last, because users expect things to work anyway and removed items should only be removed if their disappearance won't be noticed, so they are not so important in the list.
   • If there is a ticket for the change, link to it at the end of the line: "(ticket #666)".
   • Check  https://gitorious.org/bewelcome/rox/commits/develop for commits since last release that have no ticket and add them as well.
   • Thank contributing users by stating their BeWelcome user name, not their trac name, if they differ.
   • Edit milestone page and add link to changelog, see 0.7 for example.
2. Merge develop into master

   git pull
   git checkout master
   git merge --no-ff develop
   git push
   

3. Add tag for release, for example:

   git tag -a v0.7 -m "Bugfixing and feature release 0.7"
   git push --tags
   

4. Deploy www from master via deploy.sh on deer (pending documentation)
5. Make sure cron jobs (i.e. mailbot) run without errors, check bw-admin mailing list for error reports
6. Edit milestone and tick "Completed"
7. Write about release via blog post in community news
   • Pick most important changes from changelog
   • Link to complete changelog
   • Write in non-technical english
   • Spread euphoria! :)
   • See  http://www.bewelcome.org/blog/planetcruiser/ for examples
8. Announce release (with link to community news blog post):
   • bw-dev list
   • identi.ca
   • G+
   • Twitter
   • IRC channel topic
   • whatever