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On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 02:34 -0400, Mark Loeser wrote: |
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> Donnie Berkholz <dberkholz@g.o> said: |
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> > Can people be entirely banned from Gentoo? |
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> |
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> It would be ideal, but not technically feasible. |
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> |
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> > - |
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....................... <snip |
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> .......................................... |
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> |
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> > - Why would we do it? |
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> |
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> Because they are damaging the community and driving possible |
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> contributors aways. |
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> |
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Let me respond to this specifically. I have pretty strong views on |
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this, and I suspect they might reflect a minority opinion. |
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|
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I'm going to divide this into two cases, because I think the first one |
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is easy. First case is developers who leave or threaten to leave giving |
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the reason that "XXX (a developer or user) drove them away because |
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of ...". Second case is a sponsor who threatens to withdraw support |
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"unless something is done about XXX." |
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|
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In the first case, my reaction is absolute. The developer who threatens |
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to leave because of someone else is (1) making the judgment call that we |
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care if he leaves; (2) Is resorting to extortion to get rid of someone |
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else (or reign someone else in or whatever). At that point, I'd wish |
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him well in his future endeavors and start retirement process. I view |
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giving in to such a threat as at least as harmful as whatever or whoever |
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triggered it in the first place. This is based on my own background and |
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experiences, and others no doubt react differently. |
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|
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Now, there is a variation on this: The developer who resigns, citing |
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abuse as the reason. Here, the process has broken down. Believe it or |
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not, devrel and userrel will work with problems like this if we know |
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there are such problems to address. For example, if you want me |
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involved, best is to contact me personally or open a bug assigned to me. |
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If you want someone else, do whatever that person prefers. It's a |
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matter of posture --- we should all be prepared to help work out |
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conflicts, but we should not give in to "He goes or I go." |
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|
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The second case is more delicate. It is still a form of extortion, but |
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conceivably with merit. I think the resolution requires negotiation |
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with the sponsor and the "problem child". If we can reach no agreement, |
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I suppose we have to do what seems best for the community. That will |
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always be a decision depending on each circumstance. |
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|
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Probably nothing new here, but I wanted to clarify my opinion a bit. |
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Regards, |
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Ferris |
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-- |
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Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@g.o> |
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Developer, Gentoo Linux (Devrel, Sparc, Userrel, Trustees) |