On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 06:09:00AM -0800, Anthony Towns wrote:
>
> (1) Hrm, ftpmaster aren't doing things as quickly as normal.
> (2) Gosh, that probably means they're really busy.
> (3) I wonder what I could do that would help.
(4) I'll ask.
(5) Hmmm, no response. OK, let's see whether anyone else knows.
(6) Oh, hey, at least someone who isn't on the ftpmaster team could give
us a strong reason to believe that (2) really is accurate. But that just
puts us back at (3), with a little more information.
(7) Oh, hey, I've got an idea that might be able to help.
(8) (This is the stage at which ftpmasters, if they say anything at all,
both deny that there is a problem and give every appearance of rejecting
the proposed methods of helping, without proposing alternatives).
A lot of times we don't even get to (2); going instead to (2b), someone
assumes it's the Cabal, or whatever. Answer? Better information flow.
Sometimes we don't get past (5), or (5) flows back to (2b).
Frequently, (5) triggers a flamewar, even if it doesn't flow back to (2b).
It's been said that ftpmaster isn't a good example of a team failing
to communicate, and that others are the issue; I would challenge that
assertion. I think that the ftpmaster team *is* an excellent example of,
at the very least, "perceived to be uncommunicative in a way that causes
problems or frustration to many people". Maybe they communicate great with
some set of folks, but my personal experience has been rather less than
stellar, and the number of private emails in my Debian inbox from people
saying "I'd second you but I'm not willing to risk <X consequence> for
speaking out in public right now" (where X is "Not making it through the NM
queue", "My packages will be deliberately delayed", "The entire ftpmaster
team will hunt me down and beat me with wet noodles", whatever) would
indicate that this isn't *just* me. Maybe the number really is small, but
if so, why is it so frequent to get random questions about this on the
lists every month or so, *from different people*?
However, if anyone has a team that is a *better* example to discuss, please
point it out. I'm all for "worst goes first" as a general method of problem
triage.
--
Joel Aelwyn <fenton@debian.org> ,''`.
: :' :
`. `'
`-
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