Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2014-04-08

[Tom Wijsman]

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 07:00:42 -0400
"Anthony G. Basile" <blueness@g.o> wrote:

> While implementing a new policy may not be the right approach (or so
> I'm hearing from the community), I can bring forward at least 3
> examples of significant changes that were not discussed.  I don't
> think I would have difficulty convincing people of this fact.  If we
> do not enact policy then how is this problem addressed?
>
> As far as "driving people away" I will shift my efforts to
> recruiting. I am a professor and can get more students into Gentoo
> development.  We cannot adopt a de facto situation where devs can
> misbehave because they are indispensable.

Had a whole conversation with WilliamH about this; my viewpoint after
that conversation has changed, it isn't anymore to just go for the
policy, but it boils down that there are multiple options to pick from:

    1) you fix it on the technical level, by introducing policy;

    2) you fix it on the personal level, by improving relations;

    3) you do nothing, letting people burn out in personal quibblings.

Maybe more options exist, I dunno.

Each option then has its advantages and disadvantages, a pick:

    1) Advantage: You prevent the concerns altogether. You get useful
       feedback on what you're planning to commit.

       Disadvantage: The loudest people can stall progress. People who
       disagree speak more than people than acknowledge it, even if
       there is a fifty-fifty situation it's hard to tell how to
       proceed; that leads to less progress than without discussion.

    2) Advantage: Improved communication.

       Disadvantage: You'll need to be though to get people to improve;
       as Anthony highlights, people currently are indispensable. The
       way to fix that is get more people, if you can get more people.

    3) Advantage: People learn through burning out to work together;
       because well, reverting and/or whatsoever yields no progress.

       Disadvantage: A personal quibbling every week or so. Mood drops.

There are other (dis)advantage to these things; but I'm just saying,
whatever solution we pick, we must be well aware of the goal as well a
the consequence of that solution. And there's no way to pick no
solution; because doing so, you'll pick the current (3) by default.

That being said, these things come up due to a series of minor events
over the last week; they all turn out to not be huge breakage,
however ... what if one day someone commits something much worse?

We do our best to mitigate the situation in that case; however, I hope
that these cases don't become the habit, but rather the exception.

So far, we've been doing fine though; but seeing that some things get
committed where unintended side effects happen, it is still a worry.

-- 
With kind regards,

Tom Wijsman (TomWij)
Gentoo Developer

E-mail address  : TomWij@g.o
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