Re: -= PROPOSAL =- Release sarge with amd64
On Fri, 2004-07-16 at 21:29, Stephen Frost wrote:
> * Goswin von Brederlow (brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de) wrote:
> > If I volunteer my work I still want something back and even if its
> > only a smile on someones face or benefiting from other volunteers work
> > as well (like in Debian). Tit for tat. Thats life.
>
> Perhaps this is the best example of a mentality that's not appropriate
> for Debian, or any volunteer organization for that matter. The *point*
> of volunteering is that you're able to *give* without any expectation of
> return. It makes those on the receiving end of your volunteer work that
> much happier to know that someone did something for them without any
> expectation of return.
Volunteers do things without expectation of monetary or other material
reward, but they do need encouragement. Managing volunteers is a lot
more difficult than managing employees, because you don't have monetary
rewards (or penalties) to offer. I am thinking of two vouluntary
organisations in this town: one is a hospice; the other tries to help
people recovering from mental problems. The hospice volunteers are
enthusiastic, well looked after and therefore keep working. Its
fund-raising is extremely healthy, too. The other organisation has
permanent staff who don't know how to manage volunteers and therefore
keep losing them; even worse, they don't understand that they have a
problem and they won't be told. Their finances are in a poor state and
they always have to live hand to mouth. I am sure the correlation
between their finances and their treatment of volunteers is not
coincidental.
Encouragement is mutual; we need to encourage each other. When we have
a group that is perceived persistently to ignore people, that is very
discouraging and therefore destructive of the whole project. People who
receive such treatment are likely to become discouraged, angry and
disillusioned, as we have been seeing. That does not make for a healthy
project. If Debian is to survive in the long term, we will all need to
become aware of the need to treat each other well. In fact, that is
quite a lot more difficult with email and different languages, since
they hinder normal human interaction.
> You're not looking to volunteer, you're trying to cost-share, as near as
> I can tell. There may be better descriptions than that.
Goswin could have described it better, or did you only notice the "tit
for tat" part of what he said? The idea of volunteering in order to
give to those who won't even smile back is unrealistic in a secular
organisation; it's pretty difficult in a Christian one too. God made us
to respond to and to seek reward and seeking the right kind of reward is
good and proper. In order to offer help to those who are ungrateful and
give nothing back, you need the support and encouragement of your
friends. That is not something that a dispersed project like this is
really able to offer. Furthermore, the ungrateful recipients would
normally be on the outside of the group.
Politeness and courtesy seem to have gone out of fashion with some
people; some even seem to pride themselves on being abrasive or
downright rude. Those ancient virtues are necessary lubrication to help
people get along in society. Those who like Robert Heinlein's stories
may remember that he considered lack of courtesy to be well nigh a
capital offence. It is certainly a lot more pleasant to live with
polite people than with boors.
--
Oliver Elphick olly@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
GPG: 1024D/A54310EA 92C8 39E7 280E 3631 3F0E 1EC0 5664 7A2F A543 10EA
========================================
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me." Philippians 4:13
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