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List:       kde-panel-devel
Subject:    Re: Stepping down as maintainer
From:       Eike Hein <hein () kde ! org>
Date:       2018-06-02 11:43:04
Message-ID: 63C74ACD-FC5F-44A2-8244-B3DD9A43D1D0 () kde ! org
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To establish the full extent of the range opinions here: Personally I think the VDG \
has been working very well lately, and I want to thank its members for being some of \
the most hard-working and motivated contributors to Plasma today. They've made my \
work better many times.

I also disagree that this has lead to sacrificing "product work at the altar of \
usability". Rather I believe the past 2-3 releases have finally brought us back to a \
strong focus precisely on product work, thanks in no small part to initiatives driven \
by the VDG communication hub. I think we've found a nice rhythm of the VDG generating \
actionable work items for code contributors to jump on and implement, and especially \
in the course of the System Settings work, the forth-and-back style of iterating \
together has lead to dramatically better results every time. The results are visible \
in our release announcements.

I believe the solution to any remaining woes lies in engagement, not in throwing \
hands up in the air and complaining. It's normal for coding and design teams to have \
some push-and-pull between them, that's how they complement and course-correct each \
other. It's also worth keeping in mind how frustrating it must be for design \
contributors if code contributors let them constantly feel that they are the final \
arbiters and gate-keepers, and resort to arguments from authority constantly. This is \
not what "common ownership" in the Manifesto is about. I urge code contributors to be \
aware of this harmful messaging, which sets us back on our quest to grow our talent \
mix, which has been paying dividends. This goes doubly so for maintainers, whose \
primary function is to enable the work of other - any - contributors. Let's keep in \
mind onboarding is one of our chosen community goals.

Finally, I want to say that I think it's not in good form to have started this \
discussion in this thread. Putting an entire set of contributors on trial under the \
mantle of someone's disgruntled exit announcement, biasing the burden of proof from \
the get-go? What are we doing here?


Cheers,
Eike
-- 
Plasma, apps developer
KDE e.V. vice president, treasurer
Seoul, South Korea


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