Re: GSoC application deadline passed

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

El Sunday, 16 de March de 2008 18:44:14 olafBuddenhagen@gmx.net escribió:
> But maybe you are right. Maybe it was silly of me to assume that just
> because certain people consider themselfs part of the community, claim
> to care about the Hurd; because there is a chance to bring this project
> forward at comparatively little effort; and because I invested a
> considerable amount of time in preparing it -- that just because of
> that, certain people would consider it worthwhile to spend half an hour
> or so on helping. Stupid me.

This sounds so wrong to me that it hurts. 

Not your words or the actual content you wrote, but your feelings which show 
in your text. 

I wish I had lurked on IRC, so I could have helped. 

> Actually my impression is that the opposite is true; that flamewars are
> necessary to ever get anything moving, and to sort out people who are
> not serious about the project. That being unfriendly is an essential
> indigent in most volunteer projects. Take a look at OpenBSD.
> 
> Maybe that's because some kind of strong feelings are necessary for
> volunteers to get moving -- and sadly a flamewar is more likely to
> create strong feelings than any amount of friendlyness.

I don't think that this is true. 

A flamewar might get people working for some time. But it will take its toll 
on the long term. 

That said, your post, showing your feelings softened by irony, did work for 
me. 

And it didn't sound like "you are evil" or "you are inferior" or "you don't 
deserver anything", but like "I feel really horrible at the moment. I don't 
want to push all my bad feelings on you, but I think you should know about 
them." 

I don't think I would have found a better way to write that. 


> > You belittle or ignore all newcomers, and imply (though a nice mixture
> > of sarcasm, rudeness, and silence) that they are incredibly stupid
> > people unworthy of your time or conversation if they are unable to
> > behave or think in exactly the way your expected them to.
>
> That's not true. We do very well give notice to newcomers, if they are
> actually contributing anything. In fact, the most active people nowadays
> came in rather recetly -- they were newcomers themselfs not long ago.
>
> Actually we usually spend just as much time on newcomers, even when we
> know up front that they will contribute nothing. Maybe this is part of
> our failing -- not concentrating enough on the really useful people.

I can back that up. 

I didn't code anything for the Hurd, because I can't, but I feel quite at home 
in this list, and I try to contribute in some ways, and be it only by 
answering to blog and forum posts which ask if the Hurd is still active. 


> (Oh, by the way, before you accuse me of arrogance: I consider my own
> person mostly useless myself.)

The GSoC applications doesn't really back your claim of being useless ;-) 

If the Hurd gets at least one slot, you'll have contributed as much as anyone 
who regularly dives into code, because you'll have invited a new coder. 

And even if the Hurd shouldn't get a slot, you already laid the groundwork for 
the next application in 2009. 


Best wishes, 
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
Heißt politisch sein
Ohne es zu merken. 
- Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de )
-- Weblog: http://blog.draketo.de

-- Mein öffentlicher Schlüssel (PGP/GnuPG): 
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