:: Re: [DNG] Cease battling each other…
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Author: Mark Rousell
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] Cease battling each other in e-mail
On 24/04/2019 19:11, Rick Moen wrote:
> I waited a day, before commenting about this, because I needed to ponder
> the matter carefully and not seem as if I were taking sides in
> intra-Devuan Project interpersonal warfare.
>
> Jaromil, I was extremely serious when I said you-all caretakers should
> convince each other to _cease battling each other in e-mail_. The only
> result is angry resignations, which is about as useful to an open source
> project as sawing off your own arm.
>
> Cease battling each other in e-mail. Jesus Jehosephat Christ, man,
> isn't the wisdom of that advice clear _yet_?
>
> All of you, your good self, Enzo/KatolaZ, Dan Reurich, Ralph Ronnquist,
> Evilham, golinux (who's been constructive and blameless as always),
> fsmithred, and others I'm probably forgetting, should be acting to end
> the interpersonal craziness. Nobody should be forced out, nobody should
> be driven to quit, everyone who's leaving in anger should be invited to
> a Jitsi conference where you figure out how to bury the hatchet and
> come up with a more-constructive way of resolving disputes. (I'm
> aware that extremely bad things are happening in private communications.
> IMO, you should be working nonstop to not only stop but reverse those
> things.)


Very well said.

The kind of bickering that has been occurring here is, quite clearly,
damaging the project. It seems to me as an observer of this project that
the bickering is in fact more damaging to the project than any of the
contentious actions that have occurred!

It would be better by far to JUST STOP the bickering. It shouldn't even
be necessary for anyone to issue apologies (although no harm in doing
so, and I note that there already have been apologies). But even without
apologies, just stop. Draw a mental line under everything that has
happened and go on. There is no doubting the technical capabilities of
everyone involved and the importance of this project to operating system
diversity.

> The Jenkins server thing? [...] Treat it as a minor organisational-process bobble that took
> down an important system. Use the event as an opportunity to make sure
> you have working failover plans.

[...]
> The people / communication problems you and
> the other caretakers have been failing to solve are an, frankly, an
> emergency.


Yes, in addition to putting in place some technical plans for
emergencies, resiliency and planned maintenance, it also seems to be
important to put in place procedures for *communication* between
participants (with logging for future reference). There need to be
reliable and documented ways to let everyone involved (as well as the
public when a public-facing service is affected) know what is happening,
including in emergencies.

If anything, recent events should be seen as a positive opportunity to
get this sort of structure that will inevitably be needed for growth,
resiliency and success in place.

> Dismiss the circular firing squad, sir.


Good phraseology.


--
Mark Rousell