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On 15 July 2012 04:46, Peter Stuge <peter@×××××.se> wrote: |
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> Markos Chandras wrote: |
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>> understand that quizzes is not an ideal way to "hire" people |
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>> either, but they worked ok for all these years |
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> |
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> I don't know.. Subjectively I don't think they work ok at all, since |
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> I still haven't finished them even after many years. |
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|
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I agree that they don't work "ok" -- it only seems that way because |
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people are still joining us. |
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The first time I did the quizzes, it took me 9 months. After having |
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been away for a couple of years, I recently returned as Gentoo |
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dev, and the second time I did the quizzes it took me 3 months. |
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I've seen others take a long time doing them as well. Davide (pesa), |
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one of our most valued contributors in the Qt team, took close |
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to two years I think. |
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|
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I think this way we lose much valuable developer time. These |
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people could have had commit access and done much |
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valuable work so much earlier, if there wasn't this obstacle |
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of the quizzes... |
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|
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We should think about what kind of people we want to attract |
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as future Gentoo contributors, and what are the best ways of |
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introducing them to the tasks they would need to perform, and |
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the knowledge they would need to have. |
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|
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I'm happy to see that some effort was made, and we now know |
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that the web app is not working. What other ways can we think |
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of that might improve the recruitment process? |
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|
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> But it's totally possible that they actually *do* work ok, and that |
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> I really absolutely *must* know everything they ask about before |
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> starting recruitment. Not sure. |
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|
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The topics touched in the quizzes are things that a Gentoo |
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developer should know. I just don't think the way they work is |
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conducive to a good learning experience for most people. |
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|
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>> and it is the only alternative we have at the moment. |
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> |
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> Thinking outside of the quiz^Wbox and getting to know people is a |
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> good alternative. It takes time too of course, but no quiz or web |
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> app can replace it. |
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|
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What I noticed in my own experience as lead of our Qt team, |
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is that getting people started on the real work, being part of the |
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developer community and process, is a good way to introduce |
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them to how we do things in Gentoo. The Qt team has its official |
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overlay, and it is easy for us to give new contributors access to |
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it. That way they can learn to write ebuilds and eclasses, and |
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how to improve them, commit them, and get used to a good |
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workflow. Hanging out in the IRC channel and taking part in |
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discussions is an invaluable part of this as well. |
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|
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I'm sure a lot of mentors do things in similar ways. And maybe |
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others have things to add to this. |
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|
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We could have a portal page (e.g. on the wiki) with links to |
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all the relevant documentation for new developers |
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(dev handbook, devmanual, foundation info, gleps, etc) |
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that they should have knowledge of. Then recruits can read |
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these while they are doing work with their mentor, in an |
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overlay (either an official team overlay, or betagarden). |
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|
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We could also develop a collection of tasks that a mentor |
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can choose from to give their recruits to do. Hopefully |
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this way we can train people in a more organic way. |
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Then when the mentor deems a recruit ready, they could |
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have an interview with one of the recruiters, and get |
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commit access to the official tree as usual. |
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|
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Anyway, these are some of my ideas. What do you think? |
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-- |
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Cheers, |
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|
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Ben | yngwin |
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Gentoo developer |
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Gentoo Qt project lead, Gentoo Wiki admin |