Re: [gentoo-project] Re: A proposal to get out of this mess

[Roy Bamford]

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On 2008.01.20 15:54, Daniel Butzu wrote:

> Roy,
>
> Thank you for these details. However, I think there is a need for a
> clarification, especially coming from my side. I wasn't targeting
> with
> what I said the legal status of the Foundation, and not even D.
> Robbins who is the central character of this story. It's too bad that
> some people jump into a fight position but maybe this is
> understandable too, given the conditions. I was refering to the fact
> that, judging by what I saw happening especially on the forums these
> days, there may be some real feeling of unsatisfaction into the
> community, or at least into a part of it. Maybe we are looking into a
> wrong direction. The paperwork "drama" might not be the most
> important
> issue here, even though it may be the one that triggered all the
> thing. Looking at what the users posted, some of them seem to be
> disappointed by the technical matters they encountered over years,
> and
> some other by the social climate into the community and they way it
> evolved. Now I find it unlikely that this feeling was caused entirely
> by a blog post, or at least not to that extent. Maybe I'm wrong. I
> hope I am.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Daniel
> --
> gentoo-project@l.g.o mailing list
>

Daniel,

I am in a fairly unique position in that I spend a lot of time on the 
forums and in #gentoo, interacting with users and I am able to see what 
happens inside Gentoo too.

What I see from looking at both sides is that the first that users 
noticed of the foundation issue was drobbins blog post offering to 'fix 
everything'. Due to poor communications between Gentoo and users (e.g. 
the GWN, gentoo.org front page, PR announcements for users) many users 
had formed the opinion from that post that Gentoo is/was having 
technical problems and that drobbins was somehow in a position to fix 
everything.

A few moments thought shows that is nonsense. Maybe he could lead 
others to do the work but what is required is well beyond what a single 
individual could achieve. When drobbins was leading Gentoo, he was not 
noted for his people skills, nor his ability to listen and take 
account of the views and ideas of others.

drobbins blog post was certainly the trigger that made what was 
happening inside Gentoo visible to users but moves were already being 
made to fix the recognized issues, so while the blog entry got a lot of 
publicity and caused a lot of discussion throughout the Gentoo 
community, it didn't actually do anything useful beyond highlight the 
lack of communications between users and developers.

If drobbins wants to help out, that's ok by me but it needs to be on the

same terms as any other contributor, not the "give me total control and 
I'll fix it" terms as offered on his blog. 

In my 5 years using and contributing to Gentoo I would say that 
overall, its improved. Of course, my skills have improved too, so its 
very difficult for me to be objective. I will qualify that by saying 
that not every single step has been an improvement but that's true of 
all aspects of life.
 
** The views above are my own, I am not writing on behalf of Gentoo **

- -- 
Regards,

Roy Bamford
(NeddySeagoon) a member of
gentoo-ops
forum-mods
treecleaners

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