[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo is so AWESOME

[Nicolas Sebrecht]

The 02/08/13, Steven J. Long wrote:

> > Again, I proposed myself to the dev list two times in the past. Nobody
> > cared and I had no answers.
>
> Because that has never been the process: anyone can post to the mailing-list, it
> doesn't mean anything. While I agree it would have been good if recruiters had
> followed it up with you, if you're so new to Gentoo that you think the ML is how
> to start, then I can see why people might feel you needed to learn more, perhaps
> by reviewing the documentation. And if that's too much to ask, then perhaps you're
> not cut out to be a Gentoo developer: ime you need to be more of a self-starter
> just to use the distro.
>
> Please don't get me wrong: I think the recruitment process could be improved, in
> particular by having more developers working on it. And that does take a cultural
> shift, in terms of seeing recruitment as important, and a desirable thing to work
> on, as well as in terms of being more proactive and welcoming to newcomers, and to
> external perspectives.
>
> Neither of those change the fact that you don't join a team just by sending them
> an email. Like it or not, there are social factors involved, or it wouldn't be
> a team of people, however loosely associated.

If social factours is important, it is not just that FMPOV. Anyway, you
seems to think the way Gentoo shares code and knowledge is good enough
as-is to have contributors and new developers. Fine. I don't think so
and the other contributions to this thread confort me in my opinion.

Please, take the critism the constructive way. The topic is not about me.

> And if you cba to review the basics, stuff most users know, or can find out easily,
> what makes you think you're cut out to be a developer?
>
> Please note I'm not discussing any technical ability you may or may not have with
> bash, ebuilds or upstream sources. Just your ability to find out the basics, which
> is much less difficult than installing Gentoo in the first place.
>
> If you want/ed to be a developer, my advice would always be: show you're useful, not
> that you need hand-holding and ego-stroking from the get-go.

I've been an occasionnal contributor to Git, the active maintainer of
OfflineIMAP for more than a year and I'm maintainer and developer at
$DAY_JOB since years. I turned the OfflineIMAP worflow from one
maintainer into a team of official maintainers. This is merely one
example of my contributions to the open source world and when it comes
to recruitement, workflow and decision processes I think I know what I'm
talking about.

Pointing out my "hand-holding", "ego-stroking" or whatever looks
pointless. I know the basics. 

Thanks,

-- 
Nicolas Sebrecht