Re: debian culture
On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 03:05:47 +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 10:40:28AM +1000, Glenn McGrath wrote:
>> We have poor communications, its not a constructive team environment.
>
> Let's build a database.
Ooh, can we store the data in XML BLOBs?
Seriously though, debian is not a typical team environment because its
members of the team are not (and cannot, given the sheer number of
members) working towards the same goal. Say what you will about the
defined goals in the SC, but most of us help out for different reasons. I
mainly do it to have a usable server OS for myself, and for my company;
others do it to have a truly free operating system, etc. That's
not to say people's goals are exclusive; people just have
different priorities. Typically, smaller teams with narrowly defined
goals work better; this is why co-maintainership works so well (at least,
my experiences with them have been positive). When a random developer
(out of the thousand or so in debian) criticizes your package or work,
it's harder to take than when a team member (who you've been working w/
for a period of time) criticizes it.
However, making debian into a group of groups won't solve much; you
still need to make those groups communicate. See the recent (and
rather amusing) "-legal doesn't communicate w/ the rest of debian!"
threads for an example. Let's also not forget that FTP Master is a team,
and they harbor plenty of animosity from people outside of the team, who
aren't kept in the loop.
I don't know of any solutions for the communication problem. tbm had an
interesting solution to the problem, some months ago on this list (iirc);
to paraphrase, "Can we please start being nice to each other?"
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