[gentoo-dev] Re: Is Gentoo dying?

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Patrick Lauer posted on Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:44:38 +0200 as excerpted:

> On 04/04/10 03:48, Joshua Saddler wrote:
>> On Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:16:32 +0200
>> Tobias Scherbaum <dertobi123@gentoo.org> wrote:
>>  
>>> - Our formerly outstanding documentation still is somewhat maintained,
>>> but that's it. I haven't seen any new additions (both to our docs, but
>>> also to our docs-team) for years. People are constantly asking for a
>>> documentation wiki, but ...
>> 
>> Thanks for sh**ting on my efforts. There are lots of visible changes,
>> and I make a point of getting the word out when a new guide turns up in
>> /doc/.

>> Oh yes, and I spend hours each week constantly updating docs based on
>> the inflow of bugs, forum reports, and I constantly re-read each one
>> and improve stuff where I can on-the-fly.

> See, that's the problem.
> *You* are doing a good job. *We* as a team/community/ant colony aren't.
> 
> The visible rate of change has slowed down, and from your reply I get
> the feeling that there are also fewer people working on docs than in the
> past. So how do we improve the situation? What needs to be done so that
> you could disappear for a month or two without affecting progress
> because there are enough other motivated people sharing the workload?
> 
> My long-term goal is still to make me redundant. That way I can take a
> break whenever I get frustrated and I can focus on new things whenever I
> find something new and shiny to attract my attention...

Patrick's right, Nightmorph.  I believe pretty much everyone here will 
agree that you carry a pretty heavy load, almost a super-human load for 
one person.  But I've noticed in replies before as well as this one, you 
do seem to be getting burned out.  Which is only to be expected given that 
you ARE handling docs pretty much by yourself a lot of the time.

And I know you've asked for help, and didn't get it, a couple times as 
well.  So you solder on... more and more frustrated and burnt out, but 
afraid to stop, because after all, all of Gentoo's depending on you, and 
it /does/ feel good to have users say how well things went, using the docs 
you've been maintaining... but you're still burning out.

The same thing more or less happened to Jakob.  There were similar signs 
of stress, but Gentoo /was/ relying on him, and all the work he did bug-
wrangling.  Then one day he pretty much dropped off the face of the 
earth... or so it seemed.

It shouldn't have to be that way.  You do a great job; a super-human job 
for one person.  But you ARE just one person and unfortunately you AREN'T 
superhuman!  It's catching up with you, and I know I'm not the only one 
concerned about it.  It's unhealthy for both you and Gentoo.

So don't take this the wrong way and drive off the folks trying to help.  
Maybe, just maybe, this time you'll some of the help you asked for a year 
or whatever it was ago.

Meanwhile, some of us really /do/ appreciate all you've done to hold down 
the fort, so to speak.  I'm sure I don't know the half of it when I say 
it's not been easy, and that I (and apparently others here) /do/ 
appreciate and recognized the almost super-human job you've been doing, 
unfortunately, all too often pretty much single handedly.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman