[gentoo-project] Re: Plan, then communicate

[John Lawles <jl.050877@gmail.com>]

Alec,

On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 07:32:55PM -0800, Alec Warner wrote:
> I could sit in #gentoo and field questions all day (I've done it
> before) but I have things I could spend my time on that are more
> worthwhile to the project ....

To find the big-payoff items, I suggest first doing triage on the
threads:

(1) Ignore, at least temporarily, noob-does-something-stupid
    threads.

(2) Ignore threads about unstable packages because unstable
    packages are supposed to have problems.

What is left are (3) normal users having problems with stable
parts of Gentoo.  Then ask: what architectural changes to Gentoo
would have eliminated that problem, or better yet, that general
type of problem?

     Note that you can do this without participating in any
thread.  All that is needed is to scan the thread and classify it.

     For instance, in my observation, there are many problems that
are, at base, caused by portage leaking files and those leaked
files then cause something else to break, leading to lots of
confusion and misdirection.  That suggests that a little effort at
solving leakage might have a big pay-off in user satisfaction.

     For all I know, as I am just an uninformed end-user, leakage
has already been solved.  I mention it only as an example of using
user-frustrations to find the larger problems that are worthy of
developer time.

Regards,

John

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