Feedback! Re: [MPlayer-dev-eng] Offer of help to get me started

[Balatoni Denes]

Hi!

Thank god this last mistake could be easily corrected.

> Well you just made the added mistake of burying this (quite long and
> confrontational) email at the bottom of an existing thread, rather
> than starting a new thread. Perhaps that's for the best, though, so it
> won't incite a flamewar...
>
> Rich

btw regarding the mail - this has been discussed before,  STFA ! :]

best regards
Denes

---------------CUT-HERE-------------------------------------
Struan Bartlett Wrote.....

Dear MPlayer Development Team,

I like MPlayer and believe in it.

I first joined this list because I wanted to contribute to MPlayer what 
it didn't have, which I needed.

Because of some of the responses my contribution was given (you're about 
to find out) I lost interest.

By chance, I came back to the list today.

But when I saw again the kind of thing that made me drop out the first 
time, I felt so strongly that I decided I'd put my metaphorical pen to 
paper to tell you how I see it, for what it's worth.

The thing is, some of you on this list treated me with respect and made 
positive suggestions, without preconceptions or expectations about my 
abilities or intentions, for which I thank you.

But some of you treated me rudely, as if you were tyrannical rulers, as 
if you owned MPlayer, as if I was trespassing on your property, as if 
you feared for your position:

    You scorned my ideas, instead of trying to understand them.
    You disputed my needs, without concern for whether others had these 
needs too.
    You rubbished my coding style, although I had based my style and 
structure on what was already there.
    You criticised my implemention, although it was mostly harmless and 
caused fewer Segmentation Faults than approved code, without making 
positive and polite suggestions for improvement.

    You were full of your own preconceptions and expectations about my 
abilities, my intentions, and the needs of MPlayer's users.
    You were full of your own preconceptions and expectations about your 
own abilities and the quality of MPlayer's source code and documentation.

    You didn't make me feel welcome.

    It's like: "Aaaaah," you were saying to yourself, "another new guy 
has just barged in."

        "His ideas are different to mine.
            I don't get them. I know I'm clever, so he must be stupid. 
We don't want him here.

        His needs are different to mine.
            I don't get them. Addressing his needs threatens me getting 
what I want. We don't want him here.

        His coding style looks different to mine (does MPlayer have a 
coding style?)
            I don't get it. I can't read it. We don't want him here.

        His implemention is different to how I would do it.
            I don't get it. He doesn't speak my language. I'm busy 
coding what I need so I don't have the time to give his code thought.
            But I don't understand it and it might break. We don't want 
him here.

        He's getting in the way of what I know is right. MPlayer's gonna 
get out of control if we're not careful!
            I'm gonna have to get tough with this guy if I'm going to 
defend MPlayer and keep it safe."

        "You're not from around here, are you boy?"

    Sorry sir, no I'm not. ;-)

    Here's what I know about this kind of fearful, defensive, fighting, 
controlling response.

    It is traditionally found in stagnating hierarchies where, because 
of a lack of investment by the leaders in their capital's production 
capacity (perhaps there's a problem with delegation), growth in the 
number of positions is small. The people on each rung become overworked, 
fearful of additional demands on their time, and must compete fiercely 
for a limited number of positions on the next rung up.

    This response can also be seen in stagnating communities where, 
because of a lack of investment by the members in their capital's 
production capacity, resources become scarce. The members become 
defensive of their position, their territory. They become suspicious of 
newcomers, and exclusive about the group's membership.

    But by putting off newcomers and being closed to their ideas, this 
response accelerates the stagnation of the hierarchy or community.

    It is also wasteful, because newcomers must take their labour to 
another group, which results in there being two groups duplicating their 
efforts!

        In an open-source software project, this kind of "closed" 
behaviour gives "open-source" a bad name!!

On the contrary, it is by welcoming newcomers and their ideas, however 
alien they may seem at first; by trying to understand each other and 
reconcile their differing views, that a hierarchy or community will be 
invigorated and grow. Isn't this what we all really want for MPlayer?

To me, MPlayer's production capacity seems to be a function of the 
quality of at least four key kinds of capital:

    * source code: its readability, simplicity, elegance, bug-freeness, ...;
    * development guidelines: its readability, simplicity and concern
      for the health of the project as well as the enthusiasm of the
      developer, ...;
    * human: the number of developers, their level of intrinsic
      motivatation, their ability and carefulness (to program and
      communicate), their creativity, ...;
    * social: the developers' understanding of the project's purpose,
      vision, and values; the developers' understanding of each other
      (personally); the positive and constructive nature of their
      interactions, ...

I can see there's scope for investment and room for improvement, with 
regard to most of these areas of production capacity.

I realise we're all working really hard and it can feel like we don't 
have enough time, but in the long-term it's counterproductive to focus 
on production at the expense of production capacity - take a break for a 
moment and think about it.

For example, what's more important?

With the Aim of Growing MPlayer's Production /
 So You Can Get On With Your Own Work /
For the Sake of an Easy Life
        With the Aim of Growing MPlayer's Production Capacity /
Investing in its Future Success
Defending your own coding style, at the expense of bringing new 
developers on-board
        Finding a new one that you're still happy with that helps bring more 
new people on board
Ignoring fighting on the list   Addressing it to ensure avoiding two good 
developers being lost in the fall-out
Slagging off a developer's abilities, at the expense of losing a 
competent developer
        Expressing your specific concerns and trying to reach an understanding 
/
Or, expressing your general concerns, apologising for not having the 
time to help but
pointing them in the direction of someone else who can


Less fear. More peace.

Looking forward to reading any considered responses,

Struan.

kosh wrote:

>>If someone is so new to C that spacing prevents them from reading
>>code, they'll introduce more bugs than they're worth...