Re: Q to both candidates: preventing burnout by other contributors

[Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>]

Dear Martín,

> Yesterday I posted[0] about my experience dealing with toxic
> contributors in Debian

Thank you so much for sharing this. I hope others will reply to your
post on such an important topic. There are clearly no easy solutions
and regrettably this issue extends far beyond Debian to almost all
free software projects. :(

Now, I do share some of your pessimism regarding inactivity and lack
of acknowledgement but in the last six months I believe the topic of
toxic developers from a mental health standpoint is at least starting
to get the airing it has always deserved.

To underline a few points, you are absolutely right to point out that
a fellow contributor doesn't even have to reach anywhere close the
label of "toxic" or for them to be breaking explicit rules for them
to affect others in a profoundly negatively way.

For example, knowing that I might have a tolerable-but-poor interaction
with a developer could put me off spending more time than I might
otherwise have done. Furthermore, prospective developers observing
from the outside are likely to just pass that team by, calculating it
is not worth the emotional investment.

If the developer believes that their next step is to invoke the CTTE or
DAM, but the interaction doesn't warrant that level just yet, this causes
feelings of disempowerment and even resentfulness towards the project
as a while. This is obviously a detriment to that person's sense of self-
respect and self-worth, but — as a secondary concern — for Debian itself.

I am "lucky" enough that I have not experienced this to the same level 
as you so cannot speak from personal experience (or I may have
subconsciously moved onto other interests). However, on consulting
others over the past few days, one common theme/idea is that to tolerate
is — essentially — to approve of it.

In practical terms, we should be pointing out poor behaviour when we see
it and not relying on the aggrieved party to do so. We could advertise
more general themes or even slogans along the lines of "If You See
Something, Say Something" (!) in order to tilt the zeitgeist.

We could also better help people provide out-of-band (or even private)
feedback to offenders, letting them know how their behaviour is being
interpreted by the others and community at large. For example, in such
messages, it is more productive to concentrate on perception rather than
focusing on the actions themselves

Over time, attitudes, tolerances and people can change, but it will always
be difficult to improve our culture of constructive feedback in such a
diverse community overnight. I'd love to be able to work with you further
on this.


Best wishes,

-- 
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby@debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk
       `-