On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 1:27 PM, Ian Clarke <ian at locut.us> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Evan Daniel <evanbd at gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:45 AM, Ian Clarke <ian at locut.us> wrote: >> > I'm sorry if it appears that way, but this has been discussed >> > on-and-off for quite a long time. ?Normally stuff only gets done with >> > Freenet when someone goes ahead and does it. ?Sitting around waiting >> > for permission rarely gets anything done. >> >> Well, merely looking at your recent emails, it looks (to me) more like >> you've decided what we're doing, whether others like it or not, rather >> than starting work and asking for input. > > Starting work and asking for input was?precisely?what I did in the email > that started this entire thread.
My impression from later messages in the thread was that when people had comments, you tended to overrule them or dismiss them. I don't think this would be so much of a problem, except it sounds like you expect other people to help write code while telling them you plan to throw out what they've been working on already. For example, there's been a significant amount of UI work and discussion of same on Freetalk -- why are you announcing that "the plan" (which isn't so much "the plan" as "your plan" at present, afaics) involves throwing all that out and starting over, rather than participating in that discussion? I think there's a big difference between saying "here's what I've done, what do you think?" and "here's what I've done, and what I expect everyone else to do in the future, what do you think?" even when the amount of prior input from other people is the same. >> Also, you should let your wife talk to us :) ?I'd rather hear what she >> has to say directly; there's no point in playing Telephone here. > > I've suggested that she join in, but she isn't a huge fan of the > rough-and-tumble of Freenet's mailing lists. ?Hopefully she will. > Ian. To be really blunt (and yes, I realize that's probably part of the problem), I suggest that you should work on fixing that problem rather than avoiding it. I won't pretend to know how to go about doing that (hopefully you have some ideas?), but I think it would help if you lead by example. I haven't been criticizing what you're trying to do, and personally I don't have much of an issue with how you've done it. What I've been trying to say is that it looks to me like you ruffled some feathers, as an outside observer who's mostly neutral, I think I can make a decent guess as to why. I'd far rather have you call people out for bad behavior as required (myself included, if needed) than have you decide it's easier to let the development culture keep driving away much-needed expertise. Or making gentle suggestions, or whatever you think best, but I suspect others share my opinion: subtlety and tact are nice, but can be ineffective when the problem is a lack of them. And I'm serious about wanting to hear your wife's words directly. It would be helpful to be able to distinguish your ideas and opinions from hers. Evan Daniel
