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Duncan wrote: |
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> But no matter, the practical fact of the matter is that for someone who |
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> would otherwise not do IRC, it's just one more hurdle in the process. |
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> Whether it's useful or not, trivial or vital, no longer matters, it's |
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> defined by the gatekeepers as a requirement, therefore, by said |
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> definition, it is a requirement. |
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> |
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|
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If an otherwise-capable candidate developer is stuck in some backwater |
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where the only ISP in the country has a 14-layer impenetrable protocol |
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filter on IRC I'm sure their mentor will bend over backwards to work |
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with them. However, this is becoming more of an argument over points of |
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rhetoric than anything with a practical impact. If somebody is |
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qualified to author gentoo documentation or write ebuilds they're going |
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to be able to figure out how to use /query or /msg in any of 47 irc |
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clients. |
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|
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If somebody has some kind of physical/mental handicap that would prevent |
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realtime communications but not otherwise interfere with contributions |
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I'm sure a mentor would also be happy to try to work with that. |
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However, it is important that mentors have an opportunity to get to know |
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a candidate - they are responsible for their actions and you can't build |
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trust by only sending a few emails back and forth. Ultimately that is |
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the goal - Gentoo is a community and those who want to be devs do need |
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to be able to interact in at least a fairly nominal way with the |
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community at large. |
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|
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Gentoo has MANY things that could stand some change/improvement. An |
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over-dependence on IRC could arguably be said to be one of them. |
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However, completely avoiding an effective realtime communications |
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technology simply for the sake of doing so seems a bit over the top. |
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