Tim Mackinnon wrote:
Hi guys - this was an interesting thread - and exactly the reason why I brought
up “Zapp Empowerment” at ESUG this year.
just to let you know, based on your enthusiasm for this book,
I bought it (but not yet read it).
And one minor thought on the original post that didn't otherwise warrant
its own reply earlier... I think its important not to quash negativity.
Its a reflection of frustrations that community members sometimes feel
(as in any situation), and feeling unable to vent is a risk for people
drifting away from the community. "Feeling" free to be negative is part
of what helps people feel part of a community - but its about how that
is done.
I felt a bit that the take-away-message from the original post was
"be positive" (which some people had issue with) but I think the intent
was "be constructive" is criticism.
cheers -ben
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 <esteba...@gmail.com> 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
