[coreboot] Re: Revoke of Gerrit privileges and asking to fork (was: Gerrit etiquette)

2020-02-02 Thread David Hendricks via coreboot
Hi Paul,

> [Your plain text email part of the mail is strangely indented.]

Thanks for pointing that out. I use my coreboot.org e-mail address sparingly 
and it seems there were some minor issues in how I was using the webmail 
client. Let's see if this message shows up better...

> 1. Who is the current coreboot leadership? How many of those voted, and
> what was the result?

It's currently Stefan, Werner, and myself. When things blew up in the patch you 
cited we started an e-mail thread to discuss what was to be done, and we agreed 
that rules/guidelines need to be enforced.

We tried to reach a consensus quickly, taking into account timezone 
differences, then discussed the issue in the leadership meeting on Jan. 29 and 
followed-up with an e-mail to the list (a poorly formatted one - sorry).

The project structure was put into place when coreboot joined the Software 
Freedom Conservancy, and is described in the following PDF (note: I stepped in 
when Marc Jones withdrew): 
https://www.coreboot.org/images/b/b4/Coreboot_and_the_Software_Freedom_Conservancy.pdf


> 2. Which comment violated the guidelines? I guess it’s about change-set
> [2]? Reading the comments, and considering, that English is not the
> mother tongue of some participants, and reading an apology, I’d really
> like to know what Gerrit guide lines were violated.
> 
> 3. Why did the coreboot leadership not step in earlier to avoid further
> escalation despite being added early on as reviewer so was made aware of
> the discussion?

Although the patch is what spurred action in this case, what happened was the 
result of tensions that had built up over several months. I think this is 
generally true of past incidents as well - Frustration builds and people 
eventually burn out or lose their temper.

coreboot is a highly active project and we have a large, global community. It 
is practically impossible for a small handful of people with day jobs to 
monitor every interaction and Gerrit comment.

That said, there is room for improvement in our guidelines and earlier 
intervention. We obviously don't like losing developers, so waiting for things 
to explode is not a viable path forward. I hope we can reach a better 
understanding of the underlying issues and develop guidelines to avoid the 
build-up of tensions we saw here. The "Workflows and Guidelines" thread is a 
good start.

> Hopefully, there will be an amicable outcome nevertheless.

For sure! If this were about some troll who just showed up then dealing with 
the problem and moving on would be easy. Dealing with the fallout in this case 
will take a lot more time and effort but I hope we can eventually be whole 
again.
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[coreboot] Re: Revoke of Gerrit privileges and asking to fork (was: Gerrit etiquette)

2020-02-02 Thread Kyösti Mälkki
On Sun, Feb 2, 2020 at 2:40 PM Paul Menzel  wrote:
>
> Thank you for the email, which I am pretty sad about to hear. For such a
> drastic measure, I really want to know about more details, as otherwise
> it’s just accusation.

Paul,

Let's just move on. The outcome is what was expected and my English is
too good for me to try to hide behind a language barrier.

I cannot share the details of the discussions, nor does the leadership
have some of the details from my side.

Kyösti
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[coreboot] Revoke of Gerrit privileges and asking to fork (was: Gerrit etiquette)

2020-02-02 Thread Paul Menzel


[Your plain text email part of the mail is strangely indented.]

Dear David,


Am 01.02.20 um 19:16 schrieb dhendrix--- via coreboot:


Recently there was some unpleasant activity on Gerrit which violated 
the guidelines [1] regarding respectful conduct. Unfortunately this has 
directly caused a valued member of the community to withdraw from 
maintainership and has damaged relations with others as well.

After discussion and deliberation, the coreboot leadership has decided 
to revoke +2/-2 privileges for the provocateur and have asked him to fork the 
project to continue his work elsewhere, at least for the time being. This 
decision might be reconsidered at a later date if this person shows respectful 
behavior when working with community members in the future.

This is not the first time such situations have occurred and similar 
actions taken. It’s never an easy decision to make, however it is necessary to 
maintain a healthy and productive community. Even when only two people are 
directly involved in a conflict there are often others who are impacted. The 
cost of alienating developers and damage to the project is too high to tolerate 
any individual’s bad behavior.

We generally trust that developers acting in good faith and in a 
respectful manner can resolve conflicts on their own. However, we will continue 
to develop guidelines to help move things along when disagreements inevitably 
occur. In any case, it is always required that we treat others in a 
professional manner and communicate with respect, regardless of who is right or 
wrong on any issue.


Thank you for the email, which I am pretty sad about to hear. For such a 
drastic measure, I really want to know about more details, as otherwise 
it’s just accusation.


1.  Who is the current coreboot leadership? How many of those voted, and 
what was the result?


2.  Which comment violated the guidelines? I guess it’s about change-set 
[2]? Reading the comments, and considering, that English is not the 
mother tongue of some participants, and reading an apology, I’d really 
like to know what Gerrit guide lines were violated.


3.  Why did the coreboot leadership not step in earlier to avoid further 
escalation despite being added early on as reviewer so was made aware of 
the discussion?


I really appreciate the work of everybody, and I am saddened, that such 
conflicts arise. Hopefully, there will be an amicable outcome nevertheless.



Kind regards,

Paul



[1]: https://doc.coreboot.org/getting_started/gerrit_guidelines.html

[2]: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/38221
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