[Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Recruitment (Reviewers, Testers, Maintainers, Hobbyists)

[Steven Rostedt]

On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:24:35 +0300
James Bottomley <James.Bottomley at HansenPartnership.com> wrote:

> Seriously, what is the actual problem?  Who bites the heads off newbies
> for sport?  I ask because the first patch submission is usually treated
> with helpfulness and tolerance, at least where I've been on the cc list.
> The wrong phase of the merge cycle can be a bugger, particularly when
> most people's attention is elsewhere, but it's not like it's a huge
> deterrent.  We all have developers who'd rather spit rats than submit a
> patch to $opensourceprojecttheyfoundabugin but then, it's sometimes
> because the reply might contradict their own mythology (or question
> their reputation).  Before we embark on a huge does of hair shirt and a
> lavish process dump, what is the problem we're trying to solve?

Our reputation. No seriously, the issue isn't really with what we do
today, it's more about what we did yesterday. LKML use to be extremely
cruel. It can still be with a few maintainers, but they are now the
exception and not the norm.

It's also headlines with Linus swearing and calling people names.
Although, those too are few and far between, and Linus only does that
to people he knows. I haven't seen him do that with anyone that is new
to the list.

As I stated in other emails, we really don't need to change. We just
need to be conscious about what we say to patch submitters, and perhaps
all we need is reminders to be "nice".

I have no idea how to fix the "reputation" issue, and those that I have
met that state "I'll never participate in Linux development again!",
when asked, it has to do with something they encountered 10 years ago.
All I have to say to them is, "come back, things have changed".

-- Steve