Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 12:04:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com> To: Jordan Hubbard <jkh@winston.osd.bsdi.com> Cc: Nik Clayton <nik@FreeBSD.org>, Warner Losh <imp@village.org>, "David E. O'Brien" <obrien@FreeBSD.org>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/boot/common boot.c module.c src/sys/boot/forth loader.conf src/sys/conf Makefile.alpha Makefile.i386 Makefile.pc98 kmod.mk src/share/mk bsd.own.mk Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0009071159040.14124-100000@zeppo.feral.com> In-Reply-To: <24866.968353259@winston.osd.bsdi.com>
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> > However, communications about who's doing what is quite ad hoc. This tends to > > lead to impressions of "drive by commits" and "old boy's networks". This may > > be a feature. > > I would be the first to agree that communications and documentation > could be a lot better in the FreeBSD project. What's never been made > clear to me or anyone else, however, is just how to magically make it > all better. Getting docs or timely status reports out of PAID > engineers is already so much of a chore that it remains a mystery to > me just how we're supposed to motivate unpaid volunteers to do a > better job. I know brow-beating them about it certainly doesn't work > since it just raises the bar and tends to make them inclined to do > even less. > > That's why I've always reacted rather adversely to folks who chime in > with rose-colored suggestions to the tune of "all FreeBSD needs is for > developers to start ..." where "..." can be filled in with all the > various unpleasant tasks that nobody wants to do. The people > suggesting that such be done are also invariably the very last to > volunteer (or, even better, actually do) such things themselves which > both proves my point and adds some insult to injury. Yes, well, it's a leadership thing. The reason I began to prefer FreeBSD over NetBSD is that it appeared to have it. I do hear a rising amount of irritation from you, Jordan, about a lot of this. My mail today was just an observation. Neither a suggestion as to how to fix a problem nor a complaint that you or "someone" hasn't addressed it. It was a statement about how, at least to me, some of this (mis/lack-of) communication can be interpreted as deliberate. Other factors, like majordomo dropping me twice from the SMP list at inconvenient discussion times, didn't help either. One of the points of leadership that perhaps Core, as a central group of some authority, can provide is at least be the conduit and facilitator of information about what's being done. That has not happened here, but possibly could. You all might keep this in mind when deciding whom you might want to now have on core. -matt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message
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