[MirageOS-devel] Community (was Re: How to implement protocols?)

[Richard Mortier <richard.mortier@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All;

I've decided to split this part of the thread as it seems to have
diverged quite significantly from the original, but I do think it
needs a response. Apologies for the delay in doing so, I had a
deadline to hit on Monday and was travelling yesterday.

>> More generally, as this community (hopefully!) continues to grow,
>> http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/
>> might be a worthwhile read.
>
> To be honest I don't give a shit about the notion of community. Bands of 
> individuals gather for sometime to share a common goal and create something 
> and then disband to pursue other goals and that's the way it should be. This 
> kind of politically correct nurturing community things tend to produce 
> hypocritical and asslicking cultures for people who value the community (or 
> their position within) more than what it actually produces. And if you value 
> the community more than what it produces you are worshipping shit â or at 
> least I'm not personally interested â the real world is more interesting.
>

The real world is certainly interesting, but I disagree with the rest:
speaking for myself, I've never knowingly licked anyone's donkey, and
I'm similarly unaware that my bottom has ever been tasted. Less
facetiously (and graphically)...

I don't know what you think the "common goal" is here, but whatever it
is I don't think it's achieved yet and I think that, eg., with the
launch of http://unikernels.org yesterday, it might take a good deal
of work and time to get there (first step-- defining where "there"
is). While that's happening "we" do, de facto, form a community-- eg.,
the relevant definitions from the OED seem to be 5b and 8 ("A group of
people who share the same interests, pursuits, or occupation, esp.
when distinct from those of the society in which they live." and "An
online facility, such as an electronic bulletin board, forum, or chat
room, where users can share information or discuss topics of mutual
interest.").

Personally, I value all of this community because it has produced and
continues to produce interesting, useful things: code, outreach,
engagement, education, and all that goes with those things. To do that
has required considerable effort by many people-- a constant stream of
public talks and events; engagement with Linux Foundation, GSoC,
Outreachy, etc; website materials; hosting interns; producing sample
code, tutorials, etc; and so on. All in addition to the code itself.

To keep growing the community to keep up with all that means we need
to be open to new folk joining us. I don't think outbursts like yours
above, to a mailing list of over 280 people currently, help with
this-- the tone and language are both, in my opinion, rather
aggressive (whether or not they were intended as such). And *none* of
this has any bearing on or relevance to matters such as intellectual
rigour or the quality of production. (Though there is evidence that
even the observation of agression has negative effects on creativity,
and I understand it can have a disproportionately negative effect on
minority groups within a community.)

So-- in the (probably vain) hope anyone has read this far: I'd
*really* welcome input from everyone else in this discussion (on-list
for preference, but off-list if you'd rather). In addition to the link
I originally posted, I've also been pointed to
http://todogroup.org/opencodeofconduct/ and
http://contributor-covenant.org/. There are no doubt other similar
documents out there. The feedback I'd heard to date suggested we'd
generally been pretty open and welcoming (though, of course, negative
feedback is likely to be silent in this context, and I'm by no means
the only person who might've received feedback). But perhaps it would
be useful to make some of those expectations a matter of record if
we're going to continue growing, eg., by adopting one of those "code
of conduct" statements explicitly?

-- 
Richard Mortier
richard.mortier@xxxxxxxxxxxx

_______________________________________________
MirageOS-devel mailing list
MirageOS-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xenproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mirageos-devel