Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-project (930 mails)

[Alberto Passalacqua <albert.passalacqua@xxxxxxxxx>]

2010/6/21 Administrator <admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> > Reading this thread, I see some good point, but they are submerged by
> > a level of noise that makes them irrelevant. If we cannot have a
> > serious discussion without a level of noise superior to the level of
> > the relevant content, we have a problem, and that problem is in the
> > people who discusses, that cannot keep the discussion clean. I don't
> > think we are going to convince many to be part of this community if
> > this is the kind of discussion they'll have to be part of.
>
> There is a related point which is being ignored.  A strategy will define a
> single objective and a method of achieving that objective.  That means that
> all other objectives and other methods are left out.  This will leave out
> some members of the community.  That is inevitable.

That would be good.
OpenSUSE has a desperate need of new people in the community who carry
new ideas, and of an attitude that is actually welcoming for new
contributors, not only with words but with the example, with facts.
There are shining examples of this in our community, too often ignored
and too often criticized, just because instead of accepting the status
quo, they went on following their plans, making openSUSE better as a
result. If you want one, take a look at the too often criticized GNOME
team, and you'll see a different reality from the average community
that exists around openSUSE: for what concerns their small reality,
they actually were able to work *with* their users, and some of those
users are regularly contributing, without big discussions. I would say
they just did it, and many didn't even notice.

> This means we cannot take with us all of members of the community, and the
> people left out will either complain loudly, or become negative about oS.

Not necessarily. If you come out with a good and convincing strategy,
you might be able to involve me, but this does not mean I'll become
negative about it. If the result is something I'm not interested in,
but it is good for the project, it is perfectly fine with me.

What is not fine, in my opinion, is that old community members, who
claim to have interest in the success of the project show exactly the
opposite, re-proposing their vision old of years, in name of a
distribution that is long gone. It is not fine they spend time
discussing on details of the wording and of the grammar, attacking
sometime each other on questions of no importance, as we are seeing
here. This is going to frustrate who would like to contribute, and
will produce exactly the opposite results from what openSUSE needs.

> There will be a lot of noise, and potentially the day will be won by the
> people who complain the longest, not by the largest group or the group with
> the best strategy.

Since we are aware of this, maybe we can work to avoid it? Because
accepting it as a fact is not going to help. This project had already
its part of poor decisions because the community simply accepted.
There is now an opportunity to change things, and it seems to me many
are wasting it.

Best,
A.
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