On Sun, 07 May 2006 00:00:36 -0500, Daniel Goller wrote: snip... > get we have lost one important thing out of sight, gentoo is a distro by > users for users, and the users i think are left out of the loop on this > whole situation (more power to you userrel guys, please prove me wrong), > why would we want to be more open and inviting if being a badass who > passed some generic quiz is so much more fun. If everyone would step > down from the pedestal for a while and looked around, then maybe, just > maybe we would realize that we no longer do things to be there for them > (the users) but for ourselves, anything is geared towards improving our > leetness level, why do things have to be so complicated that people > think one can not work on ebuilds w/o some super hard special quiz or > two, it all gears towards "what you don't know how to use XYZ, you must > not be very smart/leet/cool."
Nice rant. Reminds me of the end of James Joyce's "Ulysses." Goes on forever without one period! Anyway, I am a user, and I feel like I can respond. I have participated on bugzilla, contributed some ebuilds, tried to get a project going (nvidia unified drivers), and I never felt like I was not encouraged to participate or that my contributions were not wanted or appreciated. In fact, the only REALLY negative thing that happened was when Ciaran ripped me a new a---hole because he objected to the line spacing I used in a proposed ebuild. Not the ebuild itself, but the line spacing! I also took some flak on bugzilla for duplicate bugs or disputes over validity of a bug report, etc. However, all of this eventually worked out. In a community as large as this, and as fast moving, control is important. I disagree with your assessment of the dev test. I think it's important for up and coming devs to know the rules and how to apply them. Especially when it comes to having access to the tree. I also think it's important to have rules. There is no such thing as a utopian society, and nothing will ever satisfy all persons. A greatest good for the greatest number approach seems reasonable (as John Stuart Mill proposed a few centuries ago). I think what you're seeing is the beginnings of a transitional period for Gentoo. Unlike other distros where control is tightly centralized, Gentoo's openness is part of its problem as it grows. It will be a test of the leadership to make sure that the distro has a clear course and that internecine squabbles are dealt with at the appropriate level. Hopefully devrel will be such a level. I could not tell exactly what upset you so much about the current state of affairs. Were you upset at Ciaran's departure? Were you upset that he was "voted off the island?" Did someone say something to you which offended or upset you? Personally, I will not miss Ciaran and his "I can kill you with my brain." I was not impressed, or scared! Or, perhaps, as happens with many people, it was just time. Time to move on. That happens, and it's perfectly normal. But that it was your time to "eject" does not imply there's any trouble here. Good luck with your Source Mage. For me, getting involved with a new beta project does not fit in with day to day requirements of a stable, running system. -- Peter -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
