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On Thursday, January 19, 2017 3:24:23 PM EST Patrick McLean wrote: |
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> |
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> This is an all volunteer organization, we should refrain from making |
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> any sort of regular "mandatory" actions. |
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I am quite aware. I really do not think the obvious need be stated. Also it is |
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a bit ridiculous to think volunteer organizations do not have any sort of |
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mandatory requirements on volunteers. |
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If you volunteer for say the RedCross. They will assign you tasks and duties, |
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if not when to show up, etc. Very few volunteer efforts are just show up do |
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what ever, when ever. At minimum you will have a time to report, how long you |
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will be there, etc. Not to mention leaders and people organizing the tasks. |
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There are volunteer fire departments. Should they not be required to do |
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anything? I think its silly to say a volunteer should not be required to do |
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anything. |
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> Since no one is paid, we can't |
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> have any specific expectations of when people have time to spend on |
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> Gentoo. |
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Some are paid to work on Gentoo in some capacity or another. Others are self |
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employed, so their time comes more at a direct cost. Where someone who is |
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employed would be doing it in their spare time outside of their paying job. |
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Others may be students etc. I have seen many people use it on resumes and |
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further their career. Acting like people have no personal benefit or interest |
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is also silly. |
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Now I am not suggesting it be done on any mandatory schedule. If a project |
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leader or member cannot take ~5-10 minutes a month to inform say the world. |
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Then I think that reflects more on their own time management. This is not |
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really asking much. Nor would it require much time at all. |
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Council members are expected to meet, etc. That is much more of a time |
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requirement. Requiring projects to report is minimal. Trivial if they have |
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monthly meetings. |
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> I would also have someone with limited time spending their time |
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> working on bugs etc rather than writing a monthly report. |
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If bugs could be fixed in 5-10 minutes, I think most would not exist. Many tend |
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to require more time. Also tremendous time was spent before on the GWN. This |
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is subsets of data that was in that. Which could really help others say on the |
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News project. Allowing them to spend less time on getting pertinent data. What |
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you may see as a loss of time and focus. Can also be beneficial to other |
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projects saving them time, and allow more bugs to get fixed, etc. |
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Your also missing entire that such reporting can help people outside of Gentoo |
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gain more interest in Gentoo. If they know what is going on. You want bugs |
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fixed? Would more people not potentially mean more bugs are fixed faster? Or |
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rather expect more time from the existing pool? |
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This is in part to grow Gentoo. |
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> Even at companies, where people are paid to work, engineers are not |
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> generally expected to provide status reports to management. That is |
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> generally the job of a _paid_ project manager or _paid_ manager. |
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I am not imposing that leaders be required for such. But leaders once upon a |
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time in Gentoo were called managers. Is there really a problem with asking |
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leaders to inform other leaders? How is the council supposed to know what is |
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going on in each project otherwise? How can the council make any global |
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decisions without global information? |
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That said projects are already required to do things now. |
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"A project exists if it has a maintained Wiki project page as described below. |
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("Maintained" means that the information on the page is factually correct and |
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not out-of-date.) If the Wiki page isn't maintained, it is presumed dead." |
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https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GLEP:39 |
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That could be saying that if the wiki page is not maintained the wiki page is |
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dead. However that it starts with saying a project exists if it has a |
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maintained wiki page. Makes it clear that it is mandatory to maintain a wiki |
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page or the project is presumed dead. |
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Maintaining a project wiki page is in a sense a form of reporting. A project |
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page is not necessary technical documentation and very few provide technical |
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information. Project pages serve as information on the project, its members, |
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duties etc. Thus projects already have mandatory requirements. |
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Such reporting could be used and part of a projects home page which would help |
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the project meet its requirements under GLEP 39. |
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-- |
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William L. Thomson Jr. |
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