Mail Archives: geda-user/2016/01/05/04:21:57
Peter Clifton (petercjclifton AT googlemail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] wrote:
> Please reply, with only positively phrased, positive actions which you
> - the respondent are currently, or will shortly - be taking to improve
> the gEDA/gaf and/or gEDA/PCB projects.
I'm organizing a gEDA fringe meeting in the FOSDEM cantine, where we
will 1. meet and 2. think out loud together about the future direction
of our EDA suite. We'll post notes to the list.
I have a clear idea about some things (C/scheme, data model, file formats)
but not about everything that has been discussed lately.
I also read the mailing list, and I eagerly and mercilessly ignore
repetitive and redundant arguments. Please know that there is no point
for anyone to participate in them. There are very smart people on
this list and they are not affected by this kind of noise so easily.
I will also do my very best not to get caught up in one myself! :)
This does *not* mean that I ignore any arguments made, whether I
agree or disagree with them. But repeating something over and over
will only make me less inclined to care about it.
We heard the arguments the first time. Posting the same message again
only weakens the case.
I want to emphasize this: I will not be swayed by mass emails without
strong new content.
If you watched my presentation about how I failed to maintain the libusb
project then you already know that I not only tolerated but also fueled
far too long far too intense email discussions there, which drove people
away and annoyed the community at large. I will not repeat that mistake,
and I will argue to take strong action against anyone who is repeatedly
speaking without contributing significantly to any discussion.
The mailing list is our primary communications channel and we must
treat it with more respect than we have done in the past.
If someone does not show this respect then I will yell and shame them
in public. If that does not help then I will at some point request
that they be excluded from further participation on the list.
It is imperative that the list is a friendly place where we communicate
with pleasure, not pain. If someone feels pain on the list, I request
that you let me know about that off-list. Please do not use the reply
function, because that will send an email to the entire list. Instead,
send me a new message.
I know that it is very difficult to anticipate how an email will be
received by an entire list. I will *not* argue to exclude anyone
without them receiving ample warning and having an opportunity to
discuss at the very least with me, maybe also in a larger group, as
may be needed.
If anyone is drafting an email which mostly rehashes an already known
position of theirs, then that email should rather be deleted. Our
time is too valuable.
Most of the emails on the list *do* have very strong content and I am
very excited to see discussion at such a high technical level!
That kind of design discussion is very important for us!
As the discussion finds good ideas, remember that writing the code to
implement them can take a long time, and also remember that unless you
are the one writing that code and publishing clean commits with useful
commit messages based on the public repositories, then you can not say
how someone else must work! I can't either.
What we *can* do is to encourage development in some particular
direction by stating our case, once.
I look forward to meeting at FOSDEM!
Kind regards
//Peter
- Raw text -