Re: About lost Debian NM applicants
Marc Brockschmidt wrote in his gonzo.dicp.de blog, in April:
> Sorry, but whatever your opinion of your acts is -
> I believe that backing out from something one wants
> to make better because it's not easy is not a good
> move - it's a very bad move, showing how worthless
> one's intentions are. If you want to change something,
> you have to work! If it's pinging, nagging, kicking,
> screaming - doing something is the important part.
>
> And really, you've wasted most of the time you were
> in the NM process. I can't understand how you, after
> wasting an AMs time by being unresponsive, are able
> to feel good about insulting other people for taking
> more time than you'd like.
>
> But whatever, it's your decision to do what you want.
> As long as you're able to feel good about the stuff
> you have done and still do, it's fine by me.
I just noticed now that you replied to my comment on your blog posting
some time ago. (I am doing some research on the history of the New
Maintainer process and your blog came up in the google search :) I am
reluctant to prolong the discussion and very reluctant to waste your
time. I don't expect a reply; I just want to provide an answer to the
question implicit in your second paragraph since it makes a rather
insulting implication which I don't accept.
(I must say that I am sorry that this discussion took a personal turn.
In my original blog entry I complained about Debian bureaucracy, not
about the work of particular individuals. Debian bureaucracy is an
organizational problem, not a failing of this or that member. I still
believe that Debian is badly organized and I still don't think that
this is your fault, or the fault of other individuals I dealt with in
NM. Many other social problems in Debian such as the general level of
hostility arise, I believe, from frustration that is caused by those
same organizational problems.)
I was never "unresponsive". You may be basing this accusation on the
fact that I delivered completed question forms several months after
receiving them. Actually I was in contact with my AM via IRC during
those periods. My AM at the time knew that I couldn't answer a couple
of the questions and told me to take my time because he was busy too.
Completing the forms wasn't a priority for us during the Sarge
release process. I think it is important to be responsive, and I am
pretty sure that I always was responsive.
The essence of your question seems to be this: "How can you complain
about your AM taking so much time to process your application when
_you_ took so much time to process your application?"
The first part of the answer is that I am not complaining about my AM
taking so much time to process my application. If I only had to wait
half a year it would have been acceptable. But that was half a year
of waiting just to get into the phase of the process where the REAL
delays occur. I would probably still be in the process today if I
hadn't withdrawn. In other words, I don't complain about individuals.
The second part of the answer is that I can delay my own application
as long as I want without this making all delays in my application
excusable. If I take the 9 o'clock bus instead of the 8 o'clock bus,
does that give the driver a good reason to say "Now I can run an hour
behind schedule because you are an hour behind your original
schedule"? That's absurd. The point is, I didn't prevent others from
doing their work. But Debian bureaucracy did make it impossible for
me to work efficiently. My time is better spent on other projects.
By withdrawing you can say that I devalued the time spent by others on
processing me through NM. I concede that much and I have already
apologized to those individuals for the fact that they spent time on
my behalf, without the intended result. Nevertheless, this "waste"
was inevitable. When I entered NM I was more optimistic about Debian.
More specifically, the DD who convinced me to enter NM (... actually
demanded that I do so, because he was sick of sponsoring my
uploads...) assured me that I would make it through quickly. He was
very wrong about that. I don't blame him for that. We're still
friends. :)
Anyway, much ado about very little.
--
Thomas Hood
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