The discussion herein shows my recent motivation. I also show who I would nominate as a new leader, if a new lead were to be considered.
This issue gets me the most: http://documentation.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=2664 I raise valid points about it. Both Willy and I have done work in the site_maintainers directory, so there are at least two contributors' work there. The new directory has been pointed out on the list more than once. Feedback has been requested to make it better, useful, and accurate. If OpenOffice.org's request for more contributors is genuine, it seems this work would be significantly encouraged. Yet, it is not. I returned to work here at OpenOffice.org, because I was asked by the web master of a local unix group, to put together an article about OpenOffice.org, so that he could nominate it for inclusion on the web site. http://www.uvm.org/vague/ Part of the mission for that article is to rally more contributors and to help the product become more known in our area. Considering my own personal feelings about OOo, and how hard it has been in some ways to mesh myself into the contributions, despite my tenacious attitude, I feel hesitant about writing such an article. But, when I consider how well I know the product, the web site, and the community, I asked myself why not. I know I could write a kick-ass article. I am in a dandy position to speak out about OpenOffice.org in my community, and now I have been given a path to entice more techies into it, as well as more newbies. So I return, I try to neaten the FAQs, repair outdated links, create a TODO, update the OOoHelpOutline, and whatever other loose ends I can find to make my own background more believable to achieve a higher level of reader acceptance, and to make the path for other's contributions more clear. I also asked for user stats, so that I could prepare a fact based article... all preparation work for this article, that I decided I could write, regardless of my personal suspicions, to further promote the open source community, but especially OpenOffice.org. I also found a group of folks that want to write an article about how to more effectively contribute to open source projects, and because I asked them for help in my own efforts here, they provided me with great links to help me grow my skills, so that I can better communicate with you, here and now. My discussions there cause me to reminisce on past adventures in OOo. I used to help folks who mailed their responses directly to the issuezilla list find their way back to the issue reports. In that work, I was severely beaten (verbally) for bringing up the point that attachments were not easily added to the issues. The MIME types were broken. While I was beaten up on the front lines, new users went away in the background. I also have names of folks returning to mind, several of them, that I've encouraged over the years to stick around, because contributing here at OpenOffice.org really is worthwhile, regardless of the surface tension. I guess, especially in light of these recent occurrences, I again ask myself, is it worth it? Is contributing worth the effort it takes? And I wonder, do I really want to encourage my neighbors to this place, where one has to beat their head against the wall, to bring worthy work to the project? Daniel, thank you so very much for your quiet support on my mission to try. I appreciate your support, especially because we've not been the best at collaborating ourselves. That makes your support stand out highly. Scott, thanks for listening. Knowing I was heard a little bit gave me a small sense of peace. I sure wish you all would take the SSH/CVS tunneling FAQs more seriously, but I cannot make you do that. I feel I tried, and I tried quite hard. Really, I suppose, I could just override what you say, go in and make the changes in CVS without your blessings, and be done with it, but that seems kinda rude to me, so I have not done it that way. I gave you some room to lead the work. If I were to pick a new leader for this group, I would nominate Willy, because he is unbiased about where the work occurs, and he contributes greatly to the project files. Most of Willy's work regards Indonesian translations. He has been a pleasure to work with, and I admire his productivity and his style. I thought to nominate a candidate to show you, for fact, I'm not doing this to promote my own cause, because that likely rings through your mind as you see me butt heads here. I'm not sure there is much more that I can say to further promote a collaborative spirit at this project. I'll say again, as a contributor who has been around for a while and who has been very proactive, as Scott pointed out in another thread, it is very discouraging that something so straightforward seems so hard to discuss and bring to fruition. Thank you for giving me the chance to air my gripes. I'm sorry again for my flames in the beginning. Hopefully I've learned from it. I enjoy growing my skills in professionalism, and I sincerely appreciate your feedback in helping me do that. I'm resting my case now. :) Sincerely, Diane Mackay --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
