From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 097AD1381F3 for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:09:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 05C5CE0B13; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:09:26 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 58610E0B00 for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:09:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-pb0-f42.google.com (mail-pb0-f42.google.com [209.85.160.42]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: djc) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 3976033E9DB for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:09:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-pb0-f42.google.com with SMTP id un15so8244457pbc.1 for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:09:23 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=mime-version:reply-to:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id :subject:to:content-type; bh=vg9i89Tvj8oTDObRr+M6IaRzv7t8qbNsjeXumAgaHTg=; b=h6gAGRTea6AbOcdBS2Yp4CVQmfo74sqGoFx03rT5hTdJ8l2Smkav7eEAIelk9L8NTX fRXDuMx6WFkuhPCRQ9EVvLbT3BzXtih0LnNN+AeXpXoE3CiYNZadg7thmdTEPYQtOTQR Vc4E+cDYTsZO41wZl4aiYLLnKR4NTHfg6FmDwOFB9CY/NNLeZ7iKgzcWDa0UG+Q2ClUS GPseOdvMPpuoBguO9o68oZsvVbr1y57leBe0Yn99K4lIVcgyenv4BMZ0X9e2SI4mngO9 /qYorVWUbh/wHAGB/q76pdy2TSPia1qgc+iHhWNlFhv2nLQpXiHzkHCL9DjsI0YR/9d3 CY0Q== X-Received: by 10.66.132.69 with SMTP id os5mr1702190pab.114.1379585363166; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:09:23 -0700 (PDT) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Project discussion list X-BeenThere: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Reply-To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.70.124.194 with HTTP; Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:09:03 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <523A7EAB.4050407@sporkbox.us> References: <21020.30575.805569.383992@a1i15.kph.uni-mainz.de> <20130829152248.GA3432@shimane.bonyari.local> <1377796652.5477.15.camel@localhost> <1379258522.8240.3.camel@localhost> <523915A2.7090504@sporkbox.us> <864n9il8ch.fsf@moguhome00.in.awa.tohoku.ac.jp> <523A7EAB.4050407@sporkbox.us> From: Dirkjan Ochtman Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 12:09:03 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2013-09-10 To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Archives-Salt: 38dee962-6657-4075-92a0-1ff747fde3e0 X-Archives-Hash: 85df956d180f21929f14f77a63a67042 On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 6:33 AM, Daniel Campbell wrote: > The organizational and social aspects of it pushed me away the most. I'm > completely okay with a test that ensures that you either know what > you're doing or are resourceful enough to figure it out when in doubt. > It's Gentoo as an organization that seems foreboding and intimidating. > One must wonder if they should bother applying, if they're good enough, > if a mistake would end the work they put in to become a developer, etc. That seems worrying. Can you give more of an expression of the kind of thing where you get this impression? > Additionally, I couldn't really come up with a solid goal to work on; an > answer to "why do you want to become a developer?" My computing > interests lie in problems that are already solved for the most part (IOW > I don't know how to find an unsolved problem). My favorite software > already has capable maintainers on Gentoo, as well. So if I found myself > as a developer, I don't know what I would work on. I'm interested in > writing better guides for things, making corrections, updating out-dated > stuff, and wouldn't mind adding new packages to portage, but that > strikes me as something general that all developers pretty much do already. > > I've thought about giving it a try, but I don't want to waste people's > time if someone more useful applies. This conflicts with my desire to > learn and improve, because you can't learn everything alone. So I'm stuck. > > Sorry for the long, personal answer. I would've responded sooner but I > wanted to give the question some thought. Thank you for giving the long, personal answer! I think it's very useful to hear. I also think that anyone willing to think about something like this or who can explain it this way on this mailing list should most definitely be a developer, because you're so obviously motivated to make Gentoo even better than it already is. AFAICT the documentation team is definitely understaffed, so helping out there would be an obvious win. Just fixing bugs and updating out-dated packages would also be very welcome. Please apply, I'm personally happy to be your mentor if you do (find me on IRC or email me personally if you're interested). Don't be afraid of "wasting" my time, you can easily repay it by making Gentoo better. Cheers, Dirkjan