Re: Questions for all candidates: decentralization of power
Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org> writes:
> Well, in the paid employment part of my life, I have been put in
> positions where I have needed to work with people I disliked, and it is
> not considered professional to refuse on those grounds. In Debian I
> receive bug reports from people I might dislike, but I treat those just
> the same as I do from anyone else.
Don't you think this conflicts somewhat both with Debian being a volunteer
project and with the overall goal that a lot of us have to have fun doing
Debian work? (Which, even if not a universally-accepted goal, certainly
makes it easier to find more resources.)
I'd much rather try to apply the standard Fidonet/Usenet advice: do not
intentionally offend, and do not be too easily offended.
There are some significant differences between professional behavior for
which I'm being paid, and what I do in my free time. While there aren't
many people involved in Debian who would fall into that category for me,
there have been a small handful who I'm not willing to work closely with
unless I'm being paid to do so and hence have some compensation for the
amount of time, energy, and emotional drain involved.
> Would you consider it appropriate me to refuse to acknowledge bugs or
> patches from anyone I consider to be a bad person? If not, why would it
> be appropriate for someone to refuse to collaborate in other ways?
Some forms of collaboration are considerably closer than others. Bugs and
patches tend to be mostly one-time interactions at a distance, not real
time, and involving only a few back-and-forth exchanges. That's a lot
different than working with someone regularly on tasks for months or years
at a time. There are a lot of behaviors that I can easily tolerate in the
course of a bug discussion or patch exchange that would drain me of
emotional energy and resources if I were putting up with them for months
on end.
It's a question of energy for me. If I have to devote energy to working
with people who are active emotional drains, that's energy that's not
going to improving Debian or doing other things I find worthwhile, and if
that balance gets too out of whack, I'll just stop doing things for
Debian. The net result is that the project as a whole ends up with fewer
resources and more problems.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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