Hello Peter, thank you for having raised this issue. I have some ``deeper'' questions about the philosophy of the project itself, and about its organization. Please see below.
On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 09:25:14AM +0100, Peter Kovacs wrote: > Hello all, > > I wonder if we can rename the recruitment list to something else. My theory > is that a lot of people do not understand OpenSource in general, and > recruitment is commonly strongly linked with Job offers. So have the theory > people write us with the hope on a job. > > Maybe a better name would support a better understanding, on how we work or > what to expect. > > Maybe something like enlistasvolunt...@openoffice.apache.org? > > Or simply volunt...@openoffice.apache.org or enl...@openoffice.apache.org My quick reply to your answer: IMHO (as a non-native English speaker) the term "recruitment" is already good enough to describe "enlisting as volunteering". It's very clear that everyone here is a volunteer. Moreover, you don't have to be a recruiter to write to recruitment@, as you do not have to be a developer to write to dev@ (as it is happening for applications to test release candidate 4.1.9) --- Longer pilosophycal reply starts here --- This part is about "how we work and what to expect", as you wrote. >From my very short and limited experience, I have seen quite some enlistings: people who wrote "hello, here I am, I am good at this and that". But I have hardly seen anyone working as a _recruiter_, in terms of: "we have to do X and Y. Who is available to help?" So my question is: can we use that list for actual recruitment, in terms of gathering people around a sub-proect? Such as "let's refactor module X", or "let's document module Y", or whatever we think: - would be a Good Thing for the project and - needs a coordinated effort because it's too much for a single volunteer. Such coordinated efforts would need a... coordinator, with the ability to tell volunteers "let's do X, let's not do Y". In other words, a simple hierarchy. I am asking this because I am not sure, from what I understood of "The Apache Way", how much hierarchies or sub-groups are tolerated. Moreover, the only "structured" process I have encountered in my short experience is the preparation of a release, that involves the full developers' community. But from what I have seen so far, Open Office is a _huge_ project, that carries the work of _many_ hands. It is IMHO unrealistic to expect a real evolution of this software if we do not start working in task-oriented groups. If the answer is yes, that the Apache Way and the project's philosophy have nothing against simple hierarchical working groups, then "recruitment" is (still IMHO) a _very_ good name for the list, and we should take full advantage of such name: _let's use it_ for hiring! :-) Trying to better explain my point, here is a fictional example sub-project: translate all source code inline documentation into HTML format. All names are fictional. 1- J. Doe sends a [PROPOSAL]; we discuss it on the dev@ list and agree that it is a Good Thing. 2- J. Doe and F. Bar take the responsibility of coordinating it, 3- J. Doe sends a "recruitment" message to _both_ dev@ and recruitment@ telling "let's do this; contributors welcome; we start on Octember 36th, reply to dev@ if interested". He may also dig in the recruitment@ archives and directly contact people who introduced themselves in the past, may be fit for the job and may not be subscribed to the list. 4- J. Doe, F. Bar and the other volunteers carry out the task, using the dev@ list when necessary. If recruited volunteer B. Etor says "I would like to do it bi-lingual: English and Klingon" then F. Bar has the authority to say "no thanks, please let us stick to English". I hope I could explain myself clearly. Please do not see this as hijacking your discussion thread, as I am just trying to fully understand the term "recruitment" and therefore the role of the corresponding mailing list. If this topic has already been discussed in the past (and honestly, I would be suprised if it had not :-) please send me the pointers. Best regards, -- Arrigo http://rigo.altervista.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
