Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 00:59:46 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Terry-bashing, by way of explanation... Message-ID: <5004.861263986@time.cdrom.com>
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While no one has really reacted to my last message yet, upon re-reading it myself I have to say that I think I may have gone a little far with that "village idiot" reference (and while I didn't actually _call_ Terry an idiot, I made a comparison which pretty much equates to the same thing). Let me therefore try and back up a few steps here and make some less pejorative, more detailed comments: 1. Despite my rather high level of frustration with Terry, I should note that I don't actually think he's an idiot or otherwise feel that his intelligence is lacking. I suspect that Terry is actually quite bright and simply suffers from some rather odd compulsions when it comes to showing off that intelligence. That may be amateur psychology on my part, but I'm hardly the only one to make the observation. 2. I don't think that Terry is necessarily always wrong. In fact, I'm sure that some reasonable percentage of the things he says here are perfectly correct. I also wasn't referring to his filesystem-related postings (among some of the areas in which he sincerely tries to make a technical contribution) when I jumped on him for being "wrong" about so many things. It really isn't an issue of technical competence where Terry and I are concerned, it being more a question of his ability (or lack thereof) to detect when something has passed the point of being fodder for reasonable discussion. It is this latter attribute which, I at least feel, underlies the core of most of our problems with Terry. While he may be a bright guy, he does indeed appear to lack whatever gene it is that allows one to tell when one's listener has long since lost interest and is now contemplating the practicality of suicide by tongue-swallowing (if no more fatal instrument is readily at hand). On a mailing list, this is naturally a somewhat more complex question since it could, no doubt, be argued that *someone* is always interested to some degree, but I think it's also fair to say that the average must be taken when dealing with any mailing list. If a subject has droned on past 10-15 volleys and the average length of each posting is in excess of 2-3 pages, it doesn't take a Stephen Hawking to suppose that a more than reasonable majority of listeners have dropped off and are now simply being bombarded with noise for all they're concerned. Another problem with Terry is that he seems to feel that dictating to the project, especially the core team, about ways and means is always welcome. In point of fact, it's really NOT and most of the time we'd really rather be left alone to simply do our work. Whether this state of affairs is ideal or not is irrelevant - it's simply not for Terry or anyone else to judge our methods, despite whatever they may think to the contrary, and anyone who's deeply dissatisfied with our operating model is certainly encouraged to go find an operating system which more closely conforms to their ideals. The same is no more or less true for any other piece of software you might want to run. This is not to say that we're immune to all criticism or do not welcome constructive comments about how we might do things more efficiently/better/faster/whatever, simply that there may come a point in every dialog of this nature where the conclusion is "thank you for your input but we're simply going to keep doing it this way, OK?" At that point it's sort of hoped and expected that the questioner will understand our position and make the decision to either live with it or go find something else to do - the alternative option of simply prolonging the argument in hopes that we'll eventually cave in not being any kind of option at all. Some have tried this and all they've achieved is to alienate us, Terry being a very good example; he just does NOT know when to quit where this is concerned and for all our sakes I really do wish he'd learn because he's driving me (and others) nuts. That is the essence of my frustration with Terry and why, despite having what appears to be more than enough potential to become a serious contributor, he's held back from any more expanded role in this project. His personal communications style has earned him the distrust of the entire core team and his "committer status", while never directly requested by him, *has* been discussed more than a few times in core and the very idea rejected each time by unanimous vote. This is actually so rare an occurrence that I can't think of anyone else to whom it's happened - over 90 people have now "run the gauntlet" of joining committers with very little fuss at all, and it's certainly not the core team's policy to reject people lightly. All I can do is urge all of you to consider these facts the next time Terry starts up about how we're obstructing his work or making him jump over barricades erected for no one else. Yes, there *are* now barricades in Terry's way, but I can also assure you that they're entirely of his own making. And now back to your regularly scheduled -hackers mail... Jordan
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