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On 26/11/14 22:52, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> Are you suggesting that instead of trying to mediate between people |
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> who don't get a long, it would be better to just pick one or the other |
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> as the winner and boot the other out? |
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> |
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> One of the challenges here is that if we were talking about just one |
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> productive person who tended to drive everybody away that would be one |
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> thing. The problem is that we have a lot of productive people who |
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> have different sorts of personality quirks. They range from blowing |
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> up in public, to constant passive-aggression, to just silently doing |
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> their own thing completely ignoring any input whatsoever. I'm sure I |
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> missed a few, like writing excessively-long emails. :) |
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Sorry for that wall of quoted text. IMHO, it is not about looking who is |
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right or wrong... or kicking people out. As others have said so before, |
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you always try to be a voice of reason and neutrality. You try to find a |
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middle-ground. Which is perfectly fine and very commendable. |
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But here is the thing (imho): There are limits to that and how far you |
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can go and get with that approach. You have to recognize the point where |
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someone is taking "advantage" of the situation because he feels like he |
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has become indispensable or simply knows there won't be any consequences |
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to his actions. You also have to realize that the obvious and vocal |
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misbehavior of a single person can pretty much damage the |
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reputation/"attractiveness" of a project for others... even if there are |
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100 times more people that actually are angels. ;-) |
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No matter how undermanned a project is, structures and rules are still |
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very important. If everyone can actually do as he likes (or even just a |
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select few, which might be even worse) that will tear down a project in |
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the long-run since others will feel "demoted" or unappreciated due to |
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the obvious unbalanced treatment of members. I know, I would... and that |
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is only human. |
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Personally, I have thought many times about joining the dev ranks (and |
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even made a few select steps in the past) but the atmosphere on the list |
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sometimes and the behavior of select few individuals is not really as |
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inviting. This together with the above... well... you get the picture. |
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What I am trying to say is: Catering to everyone's needs and wishes is a |
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very admirable goal. Keeping devs in the boat as well. But those goals |
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should not mean rules are not enforced or approved, nor structures put |
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in place. I, for one, never understood why it was not mandatory to be |
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subscribed to the dev list at least for every dev. I know the arguments |
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that have been posted to the list about this but still, just because it |
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is open source (free) work that "we" all do for fun, does not mean there |
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cannot be some commitments/responsibilities that come with it. |
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Last but not least: I appreciate everyone's work and I love Gentoo and |
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have probably used it for over 10 years and more by now. I feel rather |
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sad seeing devs go and I even more so when someone is actually kicked |
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out... but that is just the way of life and the latter is unfortunately |
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sometimes necessary for the health of the overall project. |
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-- |
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Matthias |