[gentoo-project] 4 Lists, 2 Requests and a matrix.

[Seemant Kulleen]

My Dear Respected Gentoo Developers,

Lend Uncle Seemant your attention for a minute, please. :)

The past few days on gentoo-project and in #gentoo-qa have been
discouraging to witness.  I can only imagine (or remember) how discouraging
it must feel to be a participant.  If you are interested, here are my
summary observations:

   - The QA team is an entirely brand new team.
   - The team-members were put in place by the collective assent of the
      Gentoo developer community.
      - No prior team was in place to spoonfeed them any information.  No
      batons to pass, no knowledge to transfer.  Processes, guidelines, and
      frameworks, rules of engagement, rules of the road, etc. -- none of these
      existed for the QA team to orient themselves into their new roles.
      - The QA team members share a motivation.
      -  To constantly improve the Gentoo experience.

From this standpoint I'm seeing a ton of missed expectations. For example
(stated and implied by words, if not intention) within Gentoo:

   - *The QA team will fix everything.  Right now.  I meant, yesterday,
   sorry.*
   - *I am correct.  The other party is wrong.  It's so *obvious*. Why
   isn't the QA team just addressing this already??*
   - *Why does QA get cc'd all over the place on bugzilla?*
   - *Most of the things QA gets cc'd on have nothing to do with us.*
   - *QA's job is to ensure the integrity of the portage tree.*
   - *QA's job is to be the technical equivalent of ComRel.*
   - *I'm not sure what the rest of the QA team thinks QA's job is?*
   - *I just want to do this part of QA.*
   - *Go raise this on the mailing lists, then council, then QA, if you
   don't like it.*
   - *This isn't fair.  You're not being fair.*
   - *QA is afraid of the community and wants to pacify everyone, which
   makes them ineffective.*

The above is a tangled hairball of:

   - QA members & non-QA-members
   - IRC & Mailing lists.
   - Assumption & Presumption
   - Truth & Embellishment

According to the Principle of
Humanity<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_humanity>,
I must ascribe the best possible intention to someone else's actions and
words.  (Allow that others are driven by the same pure motivations that
drive me.)

Which is related to my final observation: Gentoo developers, as a whole and
as individuals, share the intention *to improve the Gentoo experience.*

Finally, my request:

   1. QA Team: please unite as a team, and figure out:
      1. Your ABI:
         1. What should people expect from you as a team and you as
         individual members and doers on that team.
         2. Your API:
         1. How do people interact with you?  When is it appropriate?  What
         is the chain of conversation to get to you?
      3. Your customers:
         1. Your fellow developers.
         2. Us users.
         2. Gentoo Developer Team at Large:
      1. Please engage with the team that you guys have voiced into place:
         1. What responsibilities are appropriate for their shoulders?
         2. What authority is appropriate for them to be effective?

Humbly,

Seemant Kulleen

There was no spoon <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO0pcWxcROI>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Es2uYtSJh-Y#t=241>

There is no spoon.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Es2uYtSJh-Y#t=241>


<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Es2uYtSJh-Y#t=241>