Re: [Gnewsense-dev] Current Status (and Wiki Performance)

[Bob Ham]

On Thu, 2016-10-13 at 22:53 +0200, Sam Geeraerts wrote:
> Op Thu, 13 Oct 2016 09:40:27 +0100
> schreef Bob Ham <address@hidden>:

> > - What are the decisions that need to be made for the planning of
> >   gNewSense 5?

There's no response to this question.  Should we assume that there are
no pending decisions which need to be made?

> > - Will gNewSense 5 use a Builder-style system?
> 
> I think Builder-style makes the most sense. We can work on that right
> now.

OK, so if there's a "we" and we are working together on gNewSense 5 then
we need to have awareness of what each person is working on and what is
happening in general.  I've been waiting five months on the assumption
that you, Sam, were actually working on gNewSense 5 quietly.  Of course,
this is my fault for making assumptions but I think moving forward, if
there is going to be effective team work, there needs to be much better
communication.

> I will talk about this further with Eddi.

Ordinarily, such conversations would happen in the open on a development
mailing list like this one.  From the way you've phrased your sentence
and the fact that there has been no public discussion up to now, it
appears that you are intending to talk with Eddi privately.  I'd like to
ask: is there a particular reason for holding these discussions in
private?

> I hope we can publish
> something soon and that this will be met with constructive criticism
> from the community.

I'm concerned by this mode of working.  It seems that there is (Sam
+Eddi) doing work in private who will then seek feedback from some
separate entity called "the community".  What I would expect, and what
is the norm in modern bazaar-style development is that Sam and Eddi are
simply members of the community, working in the open with other members.
What that means in practice is that discussions happen on the mailing
list and code is available in a public repository.  Would you consider
changing your mode of working to being more open?