[gentoo-dev] What's it about, anyway?

[Tobias Klausmann]

Hi!

First, a few words on where I'm coming from, so you can maybe see
why I see things the way I do. I've been using Gentoo since some
time before 1.2. I've always liked its flexibility, its excellent
docs and that one could always find out how things work.

I'm also a Gentoo rsync mirror admin. That is, a community
mirror, so I'm no official member of the project. That said, my
mirror is probably one of the older (if not oldest) rsync
community mirrors out there. I'm quite sure it's in the top 10 of
total traffic done over the years.

Recently, I've convinced my boss to donate a rather large
AlphaServer to the project. I've done that because I heard alpha
had lost a good deal of their hardware donations and were looking
for someone to help out. So I did.

I've always enjoyed both, being a user and being a
remotely-yet-not-really dev. Recently, though, that has changed.

It's not only about the protracted and increasingly silly flame
wars on -dev. What happened today is just outright insane from
several points of view.

First, someone is offended by something that is said on IRC
between a group of devs. He then proceeds to publicly vent his
frustration with this incident.

Here's a hint: textual communication, be it mail, news or
*especially* IRC is very easily misunderstood and even more
easily ripped out of its context. I've learned that whenever
someone says something that offends you on IRC, there's several
ways to deal with it. First: Ignore it. Second: Take it up with
them, ask them (politely) what they meant, maybe tell them you
found it offensive. Just keep in mind: stay the fuck calm. Once
you abandon calmness, things will go downhill rapidly. The third
option, taking it up with some authority should only be taken
once you've used #1 and/or #2 without getting anywhere. Oh and
the fourth option is starting yelling right away. Not really an
option.

Okay, so far, nothing terribly bad has happened. There was a
misunderstanding and someone complained publicly. Not the
smartest move, IMHO, but hey, that's the way it is. 

Then, after finding out it was a misunderstanding, the thing I
simply can't wrap my mind around happens: not only silence from
the initial complainer, but also two people who suggest things
might have gotten off to a wrong start are semi-banned.

Absolutely mind-boggling.

Where does this lead us (okay, me) to?

It leads me to question whether my helping out with Gentoo is
worth it. Mind you, I hold very little stake in there as a
nondev.  But I'm seriously considering my options for another
reason: my involvement with Gentoo is something I'd put on a
resume.

But seeing how things have been deteriorating in the last few
months, I begin to doubt that that's a good idea. 

I'm not pulling the "leave in a huff" card. Gentoo can survive
without me just fine. But I think it might be illustrative that
I, as a user seek alternatives due to this completely irrational,
childish and downright stupid behaviour. 

Sure, I'm probably one of the more involved users, but if things
keep degrading at this pace, the average user will soon notice,
too. And then they'll run flocks, I guess.

This is not necessarily a "Think of the users!" type of mail.
More of a "Geez, are you anywhere near realizing what childish
behaviour your showing to the world?" affair.

That said, I'll shut up now.

Regards,
Tobias
-- 
In the future, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes.
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