Gordon Woodhull wrote:
We did update the formal review process and related pages to
invite people to use the Incubator to garner feedback before their library
is ready for a formal review. [*]
That’s how I found out about it, so I would say the submission to the incubator is at least encouraged by Considering that, it seems a bit weird that the incubator has so little activity.
I don't think Robert ever intended the Incubator to replace the formal review or the role of the Wizards. Instead, IMO it is better thought of as a replacement for the unscheduled
part of the review schedule (aka the Queue), and a better way to verify
the basic requirements for submitting a library. And reviews can be
submitted and responded to before the formal review,
without getting buried in the mailing list.
That’s how I understood it, but from my - admittedly sparse - experience, the mailing list is an excellent place for feedback, because it is guaranteed that quite a few people will actually get the message. When I have my library ready for submission to the incubator, how is anyone going to notice it? Are enough people subscribed to the feeds that a library gets more attention than in the mailing list, or at least attention from different groups of people? It seems like the most fundamental element of the incubator is a dedicated community that is willing to participate, to test and review. And it is clearly missing exactly that. --- Felix Uhl