Re: learning curve

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 08:16:32PM +0100, Michael Banck wrote:

> I said it before, and I'll say it again now: the Hurd does not need
> more users, it does not even need a lot more developers, it just need
> a few *really smart* developers.

Perhaps you should attend a presentation on community management. I have
attended a few.

In *every* community project, you get a similar distribution of people:
about 90% who mostly just lurk; 10% that contribute in some ways; and
among these, just a handful of core developers. Part of community
management is encouraging people to move from the 90% to the 10%, and
from the 10% to the handful -- but an equally important part is to
increase the pool in the first place. You can't get and keep core
developers, without making the project more interesting and welcoming in
general.

I agree that the learning curve discussion is not likely to help with
this. (Unless perhaps if it's applied to something actually concerning
the Hurd.) OTOH, I don't understand why you are so upset about it? It's
not the kind of discussion likely to distract core developers from
useful work...

(BTW, I don't actually agree on the "really smart developers only" part
either. Unless you are among those who believe that any work on the
existing implementation is pointless, and only working on a new
microkernel would provide any benefit...)

> [...] or the merits of light or dark backgrounds in CSS.

We didn't really discuss the merits of light and dark backgrounds. We
were discussing whether setting a text color always demands setting a
background color. This is not relevant to the Hurd itself, but certainly
relevant to the Hurd website. If you don't like the idea of having a
single list for the website and for Hurd development, why didn't you
voice your objections when it was proposed?...

-antrik-