Re: [gentoo-project] Resignation

[Raymond Jennings]

You will be sorely missed.

I saw you as amply fit for duty as a trustee and I sincerely hope your
skills find a good use in the open source cause.

*fires a 21 gun salute by gentoo penguins, fired from the shoulders of
Larry the Cow*

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 9:04 AM, Daniel Robbins <drobbins@××××××.org> wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Thanks very much for your contributions to Gentoo, and for this detailed
> write-up of why you left. It is very informative and enlightening about what
> the current challenges with Gentoo are. I am sure mgorny is not the only
> senior developer who could benefit from some mentorship/professional
> development to improve leadership needed skills related to support and
> encouragement of more junior members. These skills often aren't a part of a
> geek's innate repertoire but they are absolutely necessary for a successful
> open source project.
>
> -Daniel
>
> On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 1:34 AM, Daniel Campbell <zlg@g.o> wrote:
>>
>> Effective today, December 16th, 2017 at 0800 UTC, I am resigning from my
>> position as Gentoo Developer and Foundation Trustee. I joined Gentoo to
>> gain experience and give back to the libre software community. In some
>> ways, maybe I succeeded a little. I learned from this experience that
>> I don't need to be a member of a distribution to contribute or advance
>> my skills, and people will often act against their stated goals if it
>> improves their appearance. It taught me how *not* to organize a libre
>> software project. The few great experiences I had here at Gentoo sadly
>> do not outweigh the negative experiences, and I'm no longer interested
>> in beating my head against that brick wall.
>>
>> Here's a list of the "nothing" I've done in my Gentoo involvement:
>>
>> As proxy maintainer, I took on these packages to sort of "prove my
>> worth":
>>
>> net-p2p/i2p
>> net-p2p/imule
>> x11-wm/fluxbox
>>
>> I knew nothing about Java -- and it probably showed -- but I was willing
>> to learn what was necessary to get the ebuilds in better shape. This
>> never changed throughout the 2.5 years I was a developer.
>>
>> pchrist, heroxbd, jlec, and zlogene mentored me and got me up to speed.
>> I am grateful for their level of care and attention, and the effort they
>> put in alongside me. My recruitment process was protracted due to real
>> life, but we eventually pulled through.
>>
>> After I became a developer, maffblaster welcomed me to the wiki, and
>> we even had a conversation over Mumble later on. I later took on more
>> packages, enthusiastic to give back to a distro that I liked:
>>
>> app-cdr/bashburn
>> dev-util/astyle
>> media-sound/apulse
>> media-video/smtube
>> net-misc/toxic
>> sys-apps/udevil
>> www-servers/lighttpd
>> x11-misc/alock
>> x11-misc/ktsuss
>> x11-misc/spacefm
>>
>> I dipped my hands into any bug I thought I could reasonably solve,
>> and sought advice when I didn't know the correct way to do something.
>> Sometimes this worked; sometimes I'd realize I didn't have the skill
>> necessary, and left it to the more experienced people.
>>
>> Sometimes, mgorny would show up and tell me that my solution sucked or
>> was "braindead", or that such-and-such solution was "common sense",
>> with no explanation as to *why* it was "common sense". (this was on
>> IRC, though [1] outlines where jcallen had to clarify what I hope
>> mgorny intended to communicate) He didn't ever tell me what the correct
>> solution was to any given problem that I might've messed up. To this
>> end, his criticism served to do nothing but demotivate me. At a later
>> point, when monsieurp and I were dealing with file collisions, he
>> threatened to have us go through the developer quizzes again. [2] None
>> of his criticism was helpful or encouraging. The key to good criticism
>> is to be *constructive*, acknowledging the mistakes *AND* the successes.
>> Without both, one's communication is morally destructive.
>>
>> [1]: https://bugs.gentoo.org/547524
>> [2]: https://bugs.gentoo.org/603526#c6
>>
>> (careful, the comments might be deleted in response to this e-mail to
>> save face)
>>
>> Later, I was nominated as Trustee by klondike. At first, I didn't think
>> I could do the job. Maybe I should've listened to that feeling. But I
>> felt it would be rude if I didn't accept a nomination. Nothing ventured,
>> nothing gained, right? I didn't expect to be voted for. I had a feeling
>> I would be laughed at and would walk away having spent the time on a
>> manifesto for nothing. Reality is often stranger than fiction, and I
>> found myself in a Trustee role. Given that he was only one rank below me
>> in the election, I feel that klondike may have been a better fit for the
>> role. I regret accepting the nomination.
>>
>> robbat2 mentored me on Treasurer duties, when he had the spare time. I
>> felt bad that he was spread so thin between his other Gentoo duties,
>> mentoring me, and being a parent. Nevertheless, I pushed forward, trying
>> to fill the role as best I knew how to. Most of the time, I was afraid
>> to touch anything because I understood that money was involved. I didn't
>> want to make a mistake and cost us money. Because of that, I only ever
>> logged into one account (Paypal), and only to gather the metadata we
>> needed to update some records.
>>
>> mgorny again showed up; this time accusing me of being a "do-nothing
>> politician". Thankfully, I kept an activity log of everything I did for
>> the Foundation, and `git log --committer=zlg@g.o` will show you
>> everything I did in the tree. Yes, I made mistakes. Some of them rookie
>> ones. But given that I wasn't being paid for my work, and time spent
>> on Gentoo meant time I couldn't spend on other things (like personal
>> projects), I needed to make a value decision: was I willing to continue
>> donating labor to an organization that didn't notice my work unless
>> I screwed up? If I was truly as ineffectual as those who claimed it
>> (rich0), what was the point of continuing? The cricitism I received
>> during my time as a developer was demotivating and didn't acknowledge
>> any of the *correct* things I did; how exactly was I going to improve?
>>
>> These questions led me to my answer: leave the organization. There is no
>> point in continuing to try when I will only be berated for screwing up.
>> My failures will be paraded to all while my victories go un-noticed and
>> unappreciated. This is a losing proposition, leading nowhere. As such, I
>> am terminating my involvement with Gentoo Linux and its Foundation.
>>
>> I'd like to thank everyone who helped me become a developer and trustee,
>> and the two positive code reviews I received during my time as a
>> developer, by Soap and floppym. They helped me understand not only
>> *where* I messed up, but what the solution should've looked like and
>> *why* their solutions were better. I don't think either of them really
>> like me, but credit given where it's due.
>>
>> A developer will not progress or become more skilled unless they
>> understand those key things (why, how, where). Drive-by insults and
>> egotism will drive people away. Gentoo won't improve in this regard
>> unless it cares enough to value what people contribute and acknowledge
>> when people give constructive reviews. It takes effort from both "sides"
>> of a mentorship in order to get any appreciable progress.
>>
>> When I reached out to members of the Gentoo community, I learned that
>> there were a considerable number of users (of all skill levels) who,
>> for whatever reason, did not want to go through the process of becoming
>> a developer. This told me that there was an imbalance in the value
>> proposition; that is, the effort spent to become a developer *appears*
>> to be more work than what you get by making it through the process. I
>> think this is the core of Gentoo's struggles. Gentoo will continue to
>> suffer from manpower problems [3] until it figures out how to improve
>> that value proposition. If higher quality recruits are desired, then
>> a structured curriculum -- with smaller, focused tests along the way
>> -- may be the best way to bring a recruit from "wet behind the ears"
>> to "ready to commit on the toolchain". This process is important to
>> Gentoo's longevity, and unless its leadership takes this social problem
>> seriously, they will find themselves with more work and fewer people.
>>
>> [3]: Before any glib old-timer pipes up, recall that the Council (your
>> leadership) just recently considered a mailing list split and discussed
>> package maintenance (i.e. manpower) problems in the same meeting; I hope
>> the irony is not lost on others.
>>
>> I expect to be laughed or jeered at by mgorny and other senior
>> developers, but now it's Gentoo's problem, not mine. I've done what I
>> thought I could do, and can walk away knowing that I tried. Nobody can
>> reasonably ask for more than that.
>>
>> So long, and thanks for all the fish.
>>
>> (on the plus side, you can now type 'zl' and Tab in IRC to get zlogene
>> instead of me :P)
>>
>> My Foundation activity follows.
>>
>> FOUNDATION ACTIVITY TRACKER
>> FOR zlg@g.o
>>
>> 2017-10-08
>>     Worked with robbat2 to catch up the MoneyMarket account to match the
>> missing
>>     statements from 2013-12 to 2015-12.
>>
>> 2017-10-22
>>     Edited the Foundation:Activity Tracker page with the new due date of
>> the
>>     Treasurer's Annual Report with NM: 2018-11-15
>>
>> 2017-11-19
>>     robbat2 re-encrypted the banking passwords file, granting access to
>> online
>>     accounts for me to begin converting Paypal transaction data and catch
>> up on
>>     other financial activity.
>>
>>     Paypal transaction information from 20170701-20171031 was imported and
>>     converted using `make all` in /paypal_raw/; commit pending
>>
>>     Corrected Ruby call in paypal_raw/Makefile to ruby22
>>
>>     Added a note in paypal_raw/README about requiring dev-ruby/tzinfo
>>
>>     The meeting was postponed until Nov 26th, due to Meeting Chair's
>> last-minute
>>     obligations and a shortage of trustees.
>>         * E-mail announcement was sent to -nfp@l.g.o
>>         * Wiki page for meeting updated
>>         * #gentoo-trustees /topic updated
>>
>>     Convened with robbat2 on correcting the rubycsv code to include
>> Subject: and
>>     Note: fields for matching accounts. He later fixed this on his own.
>>
>> 2017-11-26
>>     bug 605336; updated metadata for FOSDEM 2017 LiveDVD production
>> reimbursement
>>
>>     bug 591704; updated metadata for Perl Foundation donation in our loss
>> of
>>     avenj
>>
>>     wrote script to update foundation member OpenPGP key IDs to
>> fingerprints,
>>     per ulm's request:
>>
>> https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-nfp/message/f06a3b742e06ddfcb541a822e0210e05
>>     sent to trustees@g.o for review
>>     used one-liner from robbat2 to fetch fingerprints from LDAP to x-ref
>>
>>     bug 638036; created bug for shadowz.in request for logo/trademark
>> licensing
>>         discussion pending
>>
>> 2017-11-27 to 2017-12-04
>>     worked on two more scripts to migrate and upgrade foundation list to
>> include
>>     full fingerprints (and multiple keys)
>>         only script remaining is wikitable creator; a user indicated it
>> would
>>         be trivial to write, using awk.
>>
>> EOF
>> --
>> Daniel Campbell
>> OpenPGP Fingerprint: AE03 9064 AE00 053C 270C  1DE4 6F7A 9091 1EA0 55D6
>> Found on hkp://keys.gnupg.net and other keyservers
>
>