Hi guys - this was an interesting thread - and exactly the reason why I brought up “Zapp Empowerment” at ESUG this year.
I felt the passion from every single one of you - and in fact, everyone had an interesting point to make. I got a bit nervous as I worked up the 40+ replies, but I was pleased that no-one seemed to take great offence as we covered a wide range of related ideas. If I could make one small comment - sometimes I think the gems in a reply can easily get lost if you don’t pay special attention to how the person(s) reading it might react. I think we all agree that we do like this community and the amazing work it has done (and continues to do) - and so its worth acknowledging someone’s ideas and then building on them. If you disagree with them however - try acknowledging what they have said and then suggest that there is an equally valid point of view/idea that they can also consider. But I’m also glad we aren’t afraid to cover difficult conversations. I do think we can all practice giving and receiving feedback in a way that can keep the energy high. Personally I really like that many of the old things are being modernised (GT Inspector blew me away - as it has done for colleagues who don’t even use Smalltalk). Equally, finding a way to get some community input via a survey/vote sounds quite interesting to prioritise a few things (possibly not for everything - as we are asking people to invest their spare time and energy on a labor of love - so we should go where the energy is). Equally, anything we can do to help keep the engineering high is equally appreciated - and I have seen it get better and better over the years. Tim On 3 Oct 2014, at 12:44, Esteban Lorenzano <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I’m writing this because I’m sad about what is happening in this list. > I’m seeing a lot of general negativity and non constructive ways to discuss > things. > I’m also seeing more and more people using Pharo for their particular > interests (which is of course a good thing) but less and less people who > contribute back to Pharo. > Finally, I’m seeing more frequently an attitude of “customer”, more than the > conviction than this, Pharo, is also yours… > > Please people, we (the pharo “core” team) cannot do everything. We do not > have the manpower or the resources to hire manpower. We would like, but we > just do not have the resources (is already a blessing that we can work on > this, for now: INRIA is paying, but what it pays is *research*, not “pharo > the language”, so this is a collateral advantage….) > > So, having an OPEN SOURCE project, with limited resources means that there is > a lot of things that depend on the community. > It depends on the community not just to fix, but to enlarge the ecosystem in > general too. > > So, I refuse to believe that we cannot be a cool and helpful community. > I refuse to believe that general negativity and bad humor can overcome the > joy of participating in this collective effort. > > So, here some recommendations for enhance the way we participate: > > - Be positive. Just “this is a s**t” does not help. Even if it is. > - Be propositional. Just “this is a s**t”, and not telling what you > want/prefer does not help. > - Be proactive. Just “this is a s**t”, and not report, discuss and (at least > time to time) provide a fix/enhancement does not help. > > In conclusion: not helping does not help :) > After all, this is the “pharo-dev” list. I mean, the list of people wanting > to participate from this great, community effort. > > cheers, > Esteban, still grateful of belonging to this community > > >
