On Mar 16, 2010, at 7:18 PM, Scott Gray wrote: > On 16/03/2010, at 6:58 PM, David E Jones wrote: >> >> On Mar 16, 2010, at 6:49 PM, Scott Gray wrote: >> >>> On 16/03/2010, at 6:39 PM, David E Jones wrote: >>> >>>> I'll admit I empathize with what Sharan is expressing here. It's hard to >>>> do stuff, or know how to do stuff and what to do, when there are a bunch >>>> of people responding with implied policies or with vetoes for this and >>>> that. >>> >>> Well let's document it so everyone knows what the community policy is. >>> Please feel free to comment on the guidelines I proposed elsewhere in this >>> thread. >>> >>> You've quite clearly stepped away from taking an administrative position >>> within the community and it would be nice if we didn't spend too much time >>> criticizing people who are trying to help fill that void. >> >> Oh, is that what's happening? I guess I missed that... I didn't even realize >> there was an administrative void. Maybe it goes further than that... when I >> was the PMC Chair maybe a lot of stuff went on that needed more >> "administration" when I didn't think any interference was necessary. Or, >> maybe that has nothing to do with the PMC Chair role anyway... > > These front page issues are ones that I haven't seen the community have to > deal with before so I have no idea how you might have dealt with it back when > you were more involved. I wasn't referring to the PMC Chair position as > such, more so the general guidance that you used to provide on all things > OFBiz and the weight that such guidance carried. > > If you feel that some of the links posted recently are perfectly acceptable > then let's discuss that, otherwise I'm not really sure of the point you're > trying to get across.
My point is that we need to really do something, or we need to do nothing. We're getting into areas of marketing and promotion for community members, and that's a tough topic in a community driven primarily be contracting service providers. There are a few hobbyists that contribute to the project, but not a whole lot. There are a few product companies that do independent marketing that contribute, but not a whole lot. AFAIK that is pretty different from most ASF projects. While we don't allow blatant marketing on the official web site (it is allowed in the wiki, and we even have specific places for it), but we have historically allowed linking to resources that are not part of OFBiz but that are about the project and add value for users and contributors. I have a problem with these recent complaints because: 1. there is no policy 2. the people who are complaining personally, or others in a company they work for, have done effectively the same thing What will the net result be? There's only one possibility: conflict and alienation in the community. This is little more than a total failure to collaborate and work together. It's that simple. There's too little generosity and giving people a chance, and there's too little recognizing one's own faults and being willing to compromise. There's too much nit-picking and making distinctions where there are none to justify one's own behavior and condemn someone else's. We either learn how to get along or we won't get along. There is no "get along fairy." People can deny this all they want, but it won't help fix the problem. We could introduce more draconian policies and that will treat a symptom (like no blogs, no docs, no nothing but real genuine news items voted on the by PMC allowed on the home page), but it won't solve the real problem. -David
