All sarcasm aside, project morale is not just a thing of the other. It is of all of us participating in this project.
I agree with Adrian that heated discussions happen in every community. The most important thing is that we as a community learn from it and improves ourselves so all get better in working together. Adrian points out that *everybody* tends to look the other way in the hope that the next distraction comes along. This is not true. It is the majority that looks the other way. There is this minority that feels that project morale needs to improve. The morale of all participants in this community, the morale of non-committing contributors, committers *and* PMC members. There is this minority that feels that the PMC should focus more on community (building) than on just on code. That more is done to doing just to all parties using and contributing to the works of this project. Because the more happiness is felt by all, the better the collaboration is. Which leads to more contributors, more adopters, And more bugs get fixed and we all get better and more solutions. In other mail threads, here and in the dev mailing list, Adrian has (and other committers/PMC Members have) stated that we - the rest of this community - can't tell the PMC what its role is. That we must learn what the role of the PMC is and accept it as it is and what it is worth. Basically he is saying (like other have) that we can't question the actions of the PMC and its members or committers. That we can't question whether these actions were and are doing just to all of us. Whether these actions were and are furthering this project and its community. And he is right. The PMC is self appointing. And PMC membership is (de facto) for life. The PMC Members are the only ones to decide who gets into that project body. Who they like. And how their other actions are. But we, the rest of this community, have the right to question these actions of the PMC. We have the right to demand from the PMC to define what its role is, how it should (and must) act with respect to community building and doing just to all. We have the right to tell the PMC that it should and must have a policy and code of conduct regarding its own actions and that it adheres to that, before it is telling the other (the non-voting) contributors how to work in this project. We have the right to demand from the PMC to come up with instructions for committers regarding release policies and committing code and other code related stuff, and enforce it. We have the right to demand from the PMC that it works harder on getting more committers on board, so that more is done in the code and the other works of this project. So that burden is shared among more than just the few we have active now. We have the right to demand from the PMC to do just to all in this community, not only to the 'privileged' few. For a better OFBiz project. For now and in the future. Or don't we? And how should the PMC react to that? Well, it shouldn't respond with being patient and riding out the storm, ignoring it and hoping that the discussions regarding PMC and committer actions dies down and that the people questioning these actions leave the community. Nor should respond it with 'these are the rules of the game and deal with it'. And let's face it, let us be honest to ourselves and this community, and admit that the PMC has been responding that way. And that is not community building. Let's learn from the past and work towards the better future. For all. Regards, Pierre Smits *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>* Services & Solutions for Cloud- Based Manufacturing, Professional Services and Retail & Trade http://www.orrtiz.com
