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On 05/04/10 11:07, Jon Portnoy wrote: |
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> On Mon, Apr 05, 2010 at 08:50:49AM +0300, Eray Aslan wrote: |
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> |
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>> Just replying randomly. |
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>> |
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>> On 05.04.2010 04:33, Tobias Heinlein wrote: |
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>> |
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>>> I think this is a good starting point to get rid of the "some important |
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>>> questions are too hard to answer" dilemma that can be implemented |
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>>> relatively fast. On top of that I like Sebastian's idea to order the |
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>>> quizzes by difficulty -- this means just ordering by the categories I |
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>>> just mentioned would be sufficient: 1 first, then 2, then 3. |
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>>> |
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>> I am not against this idea but frankly, I do not understand what is so |
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>> demotivating about the ebuild quiz. If you get demotivated because of a |
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>> single exam, perhaps the problem is with the motivation and not with the |
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>> exam itself. I took the published quiz just for the fun of it and to |
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>> see where I missed. It is not that long. |
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>> |
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>> |
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> Agreed... |
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> |
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> I've been following this discussion with mixed feelings. When we |
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> originally began using the quiz system the idea was simply to try |
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> to force new developers to RTFM -- and I was not such a fan of the |
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> entire concept (as I recall, the quizzes were a "suggestion" from Daniel). |
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> |
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> As it turns out, the quiz system has repeatedly proven itself useful |
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> in another way: developers who whine/bitch/moan and are hesitant to |
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> even attempt to complete the quizzes often turn out to be bitchy, |
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> unmotivated, or unpleasant developers. I don't want to name any names, |
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> but I've seen this often. |
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> |
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> IMO, those "boring" "too much like high school" quizzes serve one |
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> extremely valuable function: finding out up front who's a team player |
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> (or at least willing to do something mildly unpleasant for the |
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> Greater Good) |
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> |
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> If that's causing potential devs to drop out... perhaps the system is |
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> working as it should? :) |
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> |
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> |
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My problem with the quizzes is not that they have to be done, but rather |
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the way they are structured. I have read through the dev manual (which |
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is excellent in explaining some things, and a little rough in others), |
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but it would be much more enlightening to me to work on creating ebuilds |
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while working one-on-one with a mentor. For instance, in a recent |
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ebuild I wrote, the application installed successfully but yielded |
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sandbox errors. By jumping on IRC and chatting with a few people, I |
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readily found a solution to that problem. Later, it was brought to my |
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attention that there were other problems with the ebuild. I would have |
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never known about these issues solely from the information presented in |
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the devmanual. Therefore, I think the most valuable aspect of the |
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recruitment process is "hands-on" time with ebuilds, commits, et cetera |
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WHILE working with a mentor. |
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|
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--Zach |
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