On 2/27/16 12:15 AM, Brion Vibber wrote:
When it comes to your employees, setting the bozo bit
is a *really* bad
antipattern. Doubly so when they're coming out of a bad situation and have
a lot to tell you.
I completely agree with this - let me remind the context of my remark.
For employees dealing with the community, particularly new employees,
there can be a lot of WMF-bashing and employee bashing that really
hurts. People who have been around for a long time tend to come to an
understanding about people's ways of communicating and personality
styles. This means that it's possible to understand that person A (a
person who habitually makes accusations and doesn't assume good faith)
screaming about something means something very different from person A
(a person who generally doesn't make drama and who tries to see the best
in things and people).
We had some disastrous rollouts of bad software in recent years. This
has led, in my view, to a kind of vicious cycle - a loss of trust in the
Foundation means that people view new developments with a hostility that
is often excessive. Employees who get beaten up over such things tend
to find it very unpleasant, particularly in those cases (we've all seen
examples) where the attacks get personal. ("This software is buggy" not
easy to hear, but is an ok and honest remark. "These developers are
idiots and the WMF is yet again trying to attack and destroy the
community" is very likely to give rise to a fear and also a disinterest
in engaging. That's not good.
I'm pretty sure that's not something
you'll disagree with, but it's one of
those things that we easily find ourselves doing wrong, and have to watch
out for.
You are right on both points!
--Jimbo