Regarding prior notification of project admins, here is an example of a simple routine:I had a suggestion. It takes forever to get new accounts approved, so if you want to suggest something else I can post it.
- A few weeks before a sprint, select three projects randomly. This can be done on a relaxed schedule, but not too late. (Maybe a bit more than a "few" weeks are advisable.)
- Send an e-mail to the administrators of each of the three projects, asking whether it would be convenient to hold a contest at the given time frame. (Also tell the admins how much contributor capacity was seen at recent sprints, and that their project is one out of three taken into consideration this time.)
- As soon as the first positive reply is received, select this project, inform the admin of the choice and thank in advance, and send a friendly cancellation note to the other two admins. (These other two choices could be elected again for a subsequent sprint.)
- If only negative replies are received, cancel the sprint.
- If no replies are received at all, either cancel the sprint, or select one of the projects anyway, and state in the sprint announcement that no contact to the project admin could be established prior to the sprint.
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If the idea gets accepted that sprints could be canceled when there is no response from admins, or at least in case of negative responses, I suspect quite a few sprints in a year could end up canceled. Which would be disappointing to prospective sprinters. But sprint projects without work, too slow work generators, a defunct validator, an acoustic coupler for internet connection, ... are a bit of a disappointment too.