[gentoo-dev] The mis-concept of "slacking" in Gentoo

[gentoo-dev] The mis-concept of "slacking" in Gentoo

[Sebastian Pipping]

Hello!


When you are active in Gentoo during one week and less active during the
next it may happen that people (sometimes jokingly) call you a
"slacker".  This pattern seems to have become common enough that people
even started calling themselves slackers when they are less active than
potentially possible.  Is this reasonable and healthy?

No, it isn't.

As far as I know most if not all Gentoo developers do unpaid voluntary
work in and for Gentoo.  So every single minute a Gentoo developer puts
into Gentoo is a gift, incontrast to understanding every other minute a
stolen one.  How come such a wrong concept even made it into the process
of the council?  Officially being marked as a slacker?  Is that the only
way to ensure an active council?

To get this mis-concept out again I need your help.
There is no such thing as slacking in Gentoo - no matter how many weeks
you ran without commits.  It's time to get this understanding back to
its healthy counterpart.  Yes, it does make a difference to call a
script activity-monitor or slacking-detector.

What do we need to to do fix this?
What are the places where you observe this inversion?

Thanks for your interest,



Sebastian

Re: [gentoo-dev] The mis-concept of "slacking" in Gentoo

[Alec Warner]

+project, -dev

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 8:54 PM, Sebastian Pipping <sping@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Hello!
>
>
> When you are active in Gentoo during one week and less active during the
> next it may happen that people (sometimes jokingly) call you a
> "slacker".  This pattern seems to have become common enough that people
> even started calling themselves slackers when they are less active than
> potentially possible.  Is this reasonable and healthy?
>
> No, it isn't.
>

Why is it unhealthy?  Do you think it encourages people to 'always
meet their potential?'  I think it is very healthy for developers to
note when they cannot meet what many would consider their 'routine'
workload so that the community can attempt to detect and meeting these
staffing needs.  You may dislike the manner in which some developers
make this known 'hahaha I slacked off last week..' but the end result
is that it happens (often in .away messages.)


> As far as I know most if not all Gentoo developers do unpaid voluntary
> work in and for Gentoo.  So every single minute a Gentoo developer puts
> into Gentoo is a gift, incontrast to understanding every other minute a
> stolen one.  How come such a wrong concept even made it into the process
> of the council?  Officially being marked as a slacker?  Is that the only
> way to ensure an active council?

I would hesitate to make the assertion that every minute spent on
Gentoo is a gift.  You are not counting the people who do not always
have a positive impact on the community (see the other thread where
you brought up CoC violations and other 'gifts' of community members.)

Do you disagree with the policy that council members should attend the
meetings?  If so why?  If not, what is wrong with the existing policy;
the wording?

>
> To get this mis-concept out again I need your help.
> There is no such thing as slacking in Gentoo - no matter how many weeks
> you ran without commits.  It's time to get this understanding back to
> its healthy counterpart.  Yes, it does make a difference to call a
> script activity-monitor or slacking-detector.

I am unsure what you are actually asking to change.  Are you aiming to
change developer behavior?  Tools?  Processes?

>
> What do we need to to do fix this?
> What are the places where you observe this inversion?
>
> Thanks for your interest,
>
>
>
> Sebastian
>
>