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

[Anthony G. Basile]

On 03/30/2014 07:22 AM, Tom Wijsman wrote:
> 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.
>

No there is another issue: you don't get good design in isolation. At 
least one of the issues that was not discussed until too late has a 
design flaw.  The same arrogance that leads people to think "I know what 
I'm doing" leads people to think "I don't need to discuss this with others".

-- 
Anthony G. Basile, Ph.D.
Gentoo Linux Developer [Hardened]
E-Mail    : blueness@g.o
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