Re: 2019-02-14 Press Release Draft

On 2/13/19 8:15 AM, Michael Banck wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 10:14:55PM -0500, Jonathan S. Katz wrote:
>> On 2/13/19 4:13 AM, Chapman Flack wrote:
>>> On 02/12/19 22:00, Jonathan S. Katz wrote:
>>>> Attached is a draft of the press release for the upcoming 2019-02-14
>>>> release. Feedback & suggestions are welcome.
>>>
>>> ----
>>> Users on PostgreSQL 9.4 should plan to upgrade to a supported version of
>>> PostgreSQL as the community will stop releasing fixes for it on February 12,
>>> 2019. Please see our [versioning
>>> policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/)
>>> ----
>>>
>>> Should that be February 13, 2020? That's what the linked page says for 9.4.
>>>
>>> February 12, 2019 would be (a) today, and (b) in the past for this press
>>> release.
>>
>> Yes, good catch. Fixed.
>
> Does it make sense to ring the alarm already, one year in advance? I
> haven't checked what we have been doing in the past, but now that we
> established the 9.4 EOL is well off, it might make those people weary

With the fixed end dates in place[1], the change in major version
numbers, and having a few announcements leading up to the EOL were
missed last year (IIRC we gave one warning), we wanted to provide more
advanced warning about the next EOL of a version.

That said, reading it without tired eyes, the language could come across
as being alarmist, which is not the case. Maybe something like:

==snip==
PostgreSQL 9.4 will stop receiving fixes on February 12, 2020. Please
see our [versioning
policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) for more
information.
==snip==

and subsequent releases can gradually increase the language.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/