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

[Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2016, Raymond Jennings wrote:

> 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:

<snip>

>>> 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?

The "mentor" figure is meant as the developer(s) that help someone being 
recruited. However, the role of "mentor" is something that we can have 
anywhere. So if there's any developer you respect and you're able to 
create a connection to, then by all means please establish / foster that 
connection and "use it" to improve your knowlege and presence on Gentoo.


About the point raised by "M. J. Everitt" and Craig, if you were trying to 
join Gentoo, we aren't going to reject you just because of who was your 
mentor. We do evaluate everyone for their own, not for who was their 
mentor. Part of that evaluation is related to "social skills".
Despite all  the recent discussion here, we do need to take into 
consideration "social skills". Even if we do technical work, we need to 
do it as part of a community, so it's essential that people are able to 
work with others and reach compromises. At times, it seems some forget 
that it's easier to improve technical skills and to get more knowledge, 
than it is to improve our interaction with others. Recent Gentoo history, 
imho, only proves that some people are even resistant to that (learning 
"social skills").


Regards,

Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto
Gentoo Developer