Gentoo Archives: gentoo-project

From: Daniel Campbell <lists@××××××××.us>
To: gentoo-project@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2013-09-10
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 04:33:58
Message-Id: 523A7EAB.4050407@sporkbox.us
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2013-09-10 by heroxbd@gentoo.org
1 On 09/18/2013 05:42 AM, heroxbd@g.o wrote:
2 > Hey Daniel,
3 >
4 > Daniel Campbell <lists@××××××××.us> writes:
5 >
6 >> As a user, I've considered becoming a developer but the process is
7 >> rather contrived and multi-tiered.
8 >
9 > Would you like to try again? Where did you get stuck last time?
10 >
11
12 The organizational and social aspects of it pushed me away the most. I'm
13 completely okay with a test that ensures that you either know what
14 you're doing or are resourceful enough to figure it out when in doubt.
15 It's Gentoo as an organization that seems foreboding and intimidating.
16 One must wonder if they should bother applying, if they're good enough,
17 if a mistake would end the work they put in to become a developer, etc.
18
19 Additionally, I couldn't really come up with a solid goal to work on; an
20 answer to "why do you want to become a developer?" My computing
21 interests lie in problems that are already solved for the most part (IOW
22 I don't know how to find an unsolved problem). My favorite software
23 already has capable maintainers on Gentoo, as well. So if I found myself
24 as a developer, I don't know what I would work on. I'm interested in
25 writing better guides for things, making corrections, updating out-dated
26 stuff, and wouldn't mind adding new packages to portage, but that
27 strikes me as something general that all developers pretty much do already.
28
29 I've thought about giving it a try, but I don't want to waste people's
30 time if someone more useful applies. This conflicts with my desire to
31 learn and improve, because you can't learn everything alone. So I'm stuck.
32
33 Sorry for the long, personal answer. I would've responded sooner but I
34 wanted to give the question some thought.
35
36 >> It doesn't seem like you're becoming a developer through said process,
37 >> but rather joining a fraternity. There's lots of bureacracy involved
38 >> that really turns prospective developers off.
39 >
40 > As a young developer (less than 2 years), I feel the process
41 > reasonable. The quiz, the bug report, how you communicate... I feel
42 > they're educative rather than bureaucratic.
43 >
44 >> I don't know how common it is, but if Gentoo has a lack of developers,
45 >> there must be a clear reason as to why.
46 >
47 > The reason is that we need to give more encouragement to our users to
48 > became a developer, IMHO.
49 >
50 >> Clearly Gentoo has a lot of avid users *and* developers, so if
51 >> developers are needed, perhaps the process to become a developer
52 >> should be improved. Why else would the distro be lacking devs if it
53 >> has a bright and enthusiastic userbase?
54 >
55 > Right! Therefore I think every developer should keep a sharp eye on the
56 > prospective developers he works with, and encourage her to join Gentoo
57 > as a developer at a proper chance.
58 >
59 > Cheers,
60 > Benda
61 >

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