Hi Vojtěch, Apologies for the late reply as well, I believe the campaign period started this Monday?... Maybe? Anyhow, Trying to address your questions below ^_^ -- Br, A. Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Friday, November 26th, 2021 at 5:10 PM, Vojtěch Zeisek <vojtech.zeisek@opensuse.org> wrote:
Hi,
we now have the campaign period for the Board election [1], so let's start
some discussion. :-) I really liked both platforms, which doesn't make
decision easier, but let's see...
First usual question for everyone: if You are appointed as Board member, which
new options does it open for You? I mean, You both are valuable contributors,
You have been working like that for notable time already, and You can keep
doing so even if You are not elected into the Board. So what new can You do in
Board? What would You like to do, what is impossible without Board? How can
Board move You forward?
"...and You can keep doing so even if You are not elected into the Board." Correct, and planning to do so exactly that no matter what. Being member of the Board changes little to nothing inside me, however, my goal is not to "gain power" and/or "dominate the project" hehe. My goal is to help stabilizing the project which may need some rule changes here and there. That can be done a bit easier from within the Board (maybe). Encouraging change in general must start at the Board level I believe, you know "lead with example". This project gave me so much, it would be selfish not to try and fix or strengthen things on a human level.
Maurizio, if I read Your platform [2] correctly, I see impressive contribution
and experience, but I fail to find something like "election programme", i.e.
Your plans for Your time in Board, what You wish to achieve, etc. Am I reading
election profile, or "just" user profile...?
Side comment, when we have election for academic senate of our faculty, plenty
of candidates more or less just list their scientific work, basically CV, but
don't elaborate, how they would act like "politicians" in the senate. I then
think if I can decide only about level of expertise, or also how they are
capable to cooperate, organize, find consensus and move the institution
forward.
So, Maurizio, if You could be more explicit in this way, it'd be great. Of
course, people can vote for You based on Your great expertize, but given the
Board's purpose, I'd rather expect people to emphasize their organizational,
communication, mediating and other skills. And, of course, how they would like
to move openSUSE forward. What is Your aim in Board? What is Your reason to
candidate?
Adathor, I found Your Motivation section [4] very interesting. The described
issues indeed let a lot of bad blood behind... Despite You described various
issues rather in indications, I wonder what do You propose as solution? I know
it can't be easy, neither short process, but I suppose You have some steps or
at least ideas in mind how to improve the situation. Could You be more
concrete here? I ask because nice words about respect can stay just... nice
words without any practical impact.
You're right, and this is exactly the reason why I even considered to throw my hat in the ring, and become a candidate. In most cases these remain words for XYZ reasons, but frankly the year 2021 in the history of openSUSE scared the hell out of me, and we need to realize that there is a problem in the project, in the community. Frankly I've been thinking quite a lot what to do in terms of steps to protect our contributors, one of which step is strengthening our moderation team across all platforms (IM platforms, this mailing list, etc), we need to look into the rules, change things up a bit that not only demands respect of one another, but also points out that these platforms are not designed with taking feature requests - which are easier to describe as demands in most cases - from users in mind. We need to educate a little better the community - especially new members - as how this project works, and that there are real living people putting in their time, and effort for free to keep everything alive. Anyhow, before I wonder off any further in my reply I believe that we __first__ need to identify the issue and the source of the issue at hand which may not seem as straight forward as it might be, but I believe that others as well done a pretty good job at doing this so lets say that we're aware. __Second__ I would look into the rules for these communication platforms, and change them up in a way where feature requests or "user demands" are limited or excluded entirely. __Third__ Strengthen the moderation teams where needed by actively "recruiting" volunteers for the task. __Fourth__ While we're at the moderation team we would also need to set some ground rules there too in a unified manner. Relying on the Guiding Principles is not always enough, and being living, feeling human beings our emotions can get the best of us from time to time. Let's have rules. __Fifth__ Change up the rules for the Board as well, especially when it comes to dealing with toxic members of the community. We need to stop "putting makeup on pigs" really. If we have a problem, and if we can't deal with that problem in a discrete manner, then use the ban hammer. Do what you were elected for, and lead the project, and keep it safe. __Sixth (this is a dream kind of thing or a "would be nice to have"__ An entrypoint to the developers which would be a team of people who filter what makes it's way to the developers, contributors, maintainers. Considering the number of projects we have in openSUSE this seems to be a crazy amount of work, but till there is a will, there is a way. Would be really interested to get feedback on this, but IMO a "great filter" as such could do some wonders. Devs or engineers who work on FOSS projects are doing so cause it's fun, and we as a whole benefit of them having fun greatly. Let's not kill the fun ;)
Also, do You think the way how Board
works, what is its purpose [3], etc. should/could/might be worth to discuss
and possibly change?
"The board should document decisions and policies." The Board should indeed do that, and introducing some change for the sake of the project is probably very much needed.
Similarly for overall governance of the project,
direction where it is going to, etc. Going back to beginning, the "docracy"
works in many aspects, but we also saw some examples, when it led to
unpleasant conflicts...
"Docracy" can work if regulated better. Come to realize I sound like that I want to create a police state, I can assure you that is not the case hahaha. Anyhow, the way I see docracy is throwing stuff on the wall and see what sticks. This is actually a bit which I wouldn't change much other than add some rules and moderation etc. it's all above. Having "green fields" is great, anybody being able to make one is even better. Problems arise when these are done by stepping over people, and disrespecting each other. Gets even worse when projects try and rush into a popularity contest. I have first hand experience with this, and all the issues of my project could've been solved by being polite and communicating better. That is all it would've take. My point is that we do have some ground rules for this, but many of them are just words, and in my opinion would be a much easier time if we would have these in writing for anyone to check on so new projects have a better starting point, better chances to survive, and potentially become valued parts of the project. Br, A.
Thank You both in advance. :-)
Sincerely,
V.
[1] <https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/project@lists.opensuse.org/
message/PEZNMKDNXZBJRVNS66RZDHOB5UMM67TA/>
[2] https://en.opensuse.org/User:Mauriziogalli
[3] https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board
[4] https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election_2021_platform_adathor
Vojtěch Zeisek
Komunita openSUSE GNU/Linuxu
Community of the openSUSE GNU/Linux