Re: [gentoo-project] Hiding problems, breach of Gentoo Social Contract

[Raymond Jennings]

On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 2:13 PM, Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote:

> On Fri, 2 Dec 2016 21:52:57 +0000
> "M. J. Everitt" <m.j.everitt@×××.org> wrote:
>
> > On 02/12/16 12:36, Aaron Bauman wrote[excerpted]:
> > > On 12/02/2016 09:10 PM, Craig Inches wrote[excerpted]:
> > >> I realize I am not a dev, but for awhile I was actively pursuing this
> > >> and the situation with Idella4 (who was my mentor) has made me have
> > >> second thoughts,  from the information I have been able glean about
> > >> what occurred, and also the way his retirement was handled cause
> > >> confusion and disillusionment with the whole process for me at least
> > >> and I think a few non-devs from Proxy-Maint IRC channel feel the same.
> > > Please do not let this dissuade you from becoming a Gentoo developer.
> > > Despite the current situation and the giant books being written about
> > > comrel, council, and others, this is not the norm.  Many developers
> > > contribute everyday with no interference or thoughts of either.  Hell,
> I
> > > did not even know they existed aside from the quizzes.  No one focuses
> > > on the good things they have done... that is for sure.
> > >
> > It may come to some surprise to you (and others) that Craig is not the
> > only prospective dev who was somewhat perplexed with the attitude
> > towards select Gentoo Devs, who seemed, on the face of it, to be
> > actively contributing to the Gentoo project. There were at least six of
> > us (if not seven, possibly more) who were actively considering and
> > pursuing becoming a Gentoo developer, who all felt that we felt uneasy
> > about progression, not helped by the problems of a lack of active
> > recruiters and other issues within the Recruiters project, which have
> > hopefully now been resolved. There is a mild concern that the only
> > remaining recruiter, may have a bias against some of the prospective
> > recruits, as having been "tainted" by the former Gentoo Dev who was
> > ousted from the Proxy Maintenance project. As non-devs, we have no
> > recourse to council to ask for this to be investigated, and we don't
> > consider ourselves to have a 'voice' to express our opinions and
> > frustrations with the Gentoo 'system' as we observe it. It seems ironic
> > that we are unable to influence the procedures that would help us be
> > represented, and hence the only outlets we have are the mailing lists
> > and third-party platforms. If anyone can suggest the correct course of
> > action that any prospective non-dev contributor might have, I'm sure
> > there are a few ears who would be interested in the response.
>
> The first and most important person for a prospective developer is
> his/her mentor. If you have a mentor, then by all means talk to him/her
> first and he/she'll represent your case to the Council or any
> appropriate community members.
>

This actually does bring up a side point I've been curious about.

Do you need to be a current, or even potential/former developer to have a
mentor?

Can you have a mentor if you're a mere user?


> If you don't have a mentor or feel like you need a new one, you can
> find (another) one. Just talk to the developers you're interacted with
> (we're not all wolves after all, even if we react bluntly to some toxic
> people), they can become your mentors or talk to other developers.
> There's also #gentoo-proxy-maint that's always open for new developers.
> As a last resort, you can send a generic 'I need a mentor' message to
> gentoo-dev.
>
> But don't get unnecessarily involved in those flame wars that serve no
> purpose to you. Most of the problems are better resolved peacefully.
> And if your worries end up unfounded, it's better not to offend people
> publicly, isn't it?
>
> And please take into consideration that many of us are not native
> English speakers. I find your e-mail extremely hard to understand,
> and I'm not even sure I got it all right.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Michał Górny
> <http://dev.gentoo.org/~mgorny/>
>