Re: [gentoo-osx] Elections for Project Lead Positions

[Grobian]

On Thu, August 11, 2005 06:25, Lina Pezzella wrote:
> ... by keeping a general policy
> page up to date from early on (I.E. now). This will also be of great
> help to new developers and potential contributors. It might not be
> critical now, but as we expand as a project into the future, it will
> become more and more important.

We might need our own cornerstone on the web.  I used to think pull-based
information gathering works, but not any more for me.  Far too much
sources to pull from, so please consider having a push-based email
mechanism which I can subscribe to, to see changes whether they occur, for
instance using a syncmail script or something else.

> ... we think it might be a good idea to keep a listing of what
> each developer is working on with regards to the project (perhaps on
> the project page, which we all have CVS commit access to).

I've been desperately in need for something like this.  On the one hand I
want to know what others are doing, but on the other, I'm submitting
ebuilds, fix things, working on new ebuilds, etc.  I'd like to have (again
(also) push-based) mailings of what people do, whenever they think they
have a simple line to drop like "took up package xxx-yyy/zzz a dragon to
get it to compile".  It's bad you cannot easily get CVS log messages
(syncmail) for only the commits that I'm interested in (I guess I would
get ALL of the commits to portage).

> ... We're not looking for a list
> of packages people are involved in porting each week; we're looking
> to keep track of long-term goals that each developer is working
> towards.

Well, I would also be interested in the one-liners I described above.  You
can see it as a sign of life.  But maybe this can be automated somehow.
Long term goals are ok, but unlikely to change much, so less important, as
once you know someone, you figure out what drives that person.

> ... Fabian, our most
> awesomest recent recruit, did not send us an e-mail; rather, we e-
> mailed him after seeing some of his activity in Bugzilla.

Please assure yourself that you realise that being 'asked' is much more
motivating than actually 'asking' yourself.  In Holland we say: "kids who
ask, will be skipped".

> ... we ... have been trying to promote ML
> traffic as of late, as opposed to getting things done via IRC and
> keeping them unannounced otherwise.

This is a great thing from my perspective:
- I'm in an impossible time zone for most of you
- I'm a slow reader and writer, as english is not my mother tongue
- I like to be able to re-read some things more closely, or being able to
skip a bit for now and read it later
- IRC -- because it has no layout in any way -- doesn't allow for easy
visual message subtraction: you have to read all, and many garbage may
appear inbetween.  Reading an email like this looks much like a regular
paper I read/write, which allows for instance 'skimming'.

> ... it's important to keep users informed of changes ...

I think (and literature is with me ;) ) that it is vital for any project
when this background information (which may not be directly relevant to
you) flows through, as you still can quickly relate to it when it suddenly
becomes relevant, for instance when someone asks for your help/opinion.

> ... it's better to have one unified face than to
> have split personality disorder. We are a project, not just a group
> of developers that occasionally talk to each other.

sure thing(tm)

> 4) BugDay Participation (Operations && Strategic) - BugDay is a great
> way to meet new potential developers and to allow current developers
> to take time off from their current blocker-problem and tackle some
> easier stuff.

It's also good to participate as a group to a general Gentoo thing.  Just
to point out we're not different or something.  Bugday should also be on
our agenda, and we should participate in it -- as group.

> In regards to actually voting, what does everybody feel on this?
> Should there be a formalized election (such as the use of 'votify'),
> or should there just be a public vote on IRC or via e-mail? Since
> this hasn't been done before within the Gentoo for Mac OS X project,
> we're breaking new ground here. Please make your opinions known!
> Also, how much time should be allowed for other developers within the
> project to announce candidacy?

Personally, I feel that within a small group you don't need anonymous
voting schemes or something.  Like you can't guess what the outcome would
be.  And if the outcome would be surprising, then that has to be cleared
up and people will have to voice their opionions anyway.  I see no problem
in a public short discussion/voting on a proposal from you two in this
case.  We might need to have a discussion on the actual contents, but for
now I think it's important that someone steps up, and puts his/her head
out of the mowfield.

-- 
gentoo-osx@g.o mailing list