On 2012-12-06 10:04:21 (-0700), Andres Silva <anditosan1000@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 9:54 AM, Pascal Bleser <pascal.bleser@opensuse.org> wrote:
On 2012-12-03 18:28:05 (-0700), Andy (anditosan) <anditosan1000@gmail.com> wrote:
Wallpaper Contest Guidelines
Hi Andy. Sorry to be late to pick this thread up, but it's needed, I think.
This is an official announcement of the wallpaper contest for openSUSE 12.3.
I'd like to stop you right here. If you call a one-man-action that has not been discussed with the other contributors of the artwork team an "official announcement", there is clearly an issue.
No problem. Please take the contest in your team's hands and run it. It really feels like a one man's show because you have not been part of the conversations taken at the artwork team's chat. I can't help
Hi again. I haven't been part of those conversations, but quite obviously, the situation couldn't really be resolved by the people in the team. Several tried though, including face to face. It hasn't worked, so what should we do? Or what should I do? Just watch as the situation gets worse and worse and not do anything? Nah, I don't think so. An "outsider"'s view for the purpose of mediation is usually not a bad thing at all. And I believe I do have some experience with that, and more than just some trust by the active contributors of the project in order for me to have the legitimacy to just participate in the discussion in order to sort things out. If you don't agree, that's tough luck, because I'm pretty sure most do.
with that. But if you don't like it, I can understand. I called it official mostly because it is the artwork team that runs the contest. If it was not official, then what is?
"It is the artwork team that runs the contest": that is something you decided on your own, and you called it "official" without discussing it with the team. That's the point. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the artwork *team* cannot call it official. I stressed *team*, hope you noticed. Don't turn this around into portraying me like I wouldn't agree that the artwork *team* can handle all the artwork related things without an okay from "above" (which doesn't exist in our project). See, I stressed *team* again. Might be for a reason. [...]
Furthermore, it is a gross misrepresentation of the artwork team and your role therein. This is openSUSE: we do not want people fighting for leadership for the sake of having it their way. The result should be the outcome of people working together to produce the best result. That's how we do it.
I hope that we can clarify this because there has been a lot of conversations, ideas, proposals, that I have heard from others about this subject. I have heard things of "you can do anything" to "you can't do it all." Obviously this is an area that needs more specifics.
I wholeheartedly agree on that point. "Just do it" is a nice catch phrase but it leaves too much space for wildly different interpretations. "Just do it", of course. No one needs a "title", a "position" to have initiatives, ideas, voice and advocate them. "Credit" is something someone does have to earn through her/his *actions* though. And so is trust. I stressed *actions* here. Do I need to spell it out? Do you see where I'm going with this? But "just do it" doesn't capture the fact that one shouldn't walk on other people's toes. If there is an artwork team in place (officially or not), then everyone in that team should work in a team. Sounds obvious? I sure hope so. It has absolutely nothing to do with a title or a position or leadership (although leadership might have prevented the situation from getting this bad). It has everything to do with collaboration.
What you wrote in this email is great for a proposal. Not as an "official announcement" and implied decision that you take on your own.
We thought that this was possible given the scope of responsibility that I have been told about by other members of the community and the board.
By the board? Which board? The openSUSE board has absolutely nothing to do with this, except that it might be time for members of the board to help with the current situation through mediation. Again, the point is _not_ that the artwork *team* cannot make such an official announcement -- of course they can, and should. The point is that a single person cannot double cross the rest of the team by making an announcement and making it look like it was something the team agreed upon. Hope the distinction is clear now. And, of course, there are many other things that are not okay. I'm sure you're quite aware of them. It has been mentioned to you more than once already. And I'm also convinced that there are a few things you don't agree with and don't find fair, and you're probably even right, at least on some of them, just like everybody else. So, should we all continue to dance around the issue and not do anything about it? The current situation causes frustration, angriness, waste of time and energy. Ultimately, that quite obviously leads to lack of motivation, people quitting the team, or even the project. Does anyone have a good idea on how to resolve this? (I don't mean the wallpaper contest nor the artwork for 12.3, I mean the bad blood in the artwork "team"/"teams"/factions.) Because if not, I personally believe it's time to attempt a mediation through the board. (I more or less outlined how in the few emails I wrote tonight.) [...] cheers -- -o) Pascal Bleser /\ http://opensuse.org -- we haz green __v http://fosdem.org -- we haz conf