Re: [gentoo-project] Resignation

[Daniel Robbins]

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
>