On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
You're generalizing in ways that are invalid. Your behavior on this list, MZMcBride's behavior on this list, Trevor's behavior on this list, my behavior on this list -- all those things are very specific to us as individuals, and so are the community dynamics that result. There's no inevitability of outcomes, we're shaping these outcomes together now.
I respectfully disagree. Attitude is not important compared to concrete things that are upsetting people. The number one thing that volunteers are unhappy about is non-deployment of volunteer code. Why? Because the only reason for their participation is so that their code should be deployed. When their code is neglected while other people's code is deployed immediately, solely because those other people happen to work for Wikimedia, that will result in a great deal of frustration no matter what attitude anyone approaches it with. And the solution is simple: Wikimedia has to allocate the resources to deploy volunteer code continually, just like employee code. Which it has, and that decision will have a much greater impact on the staff-volunteer relationship than any change in attitude possibly could.
I didn't brush aside your points earlier, nor did Danese, nor did Tim, nor did others who responded to you. If you want to feel slighted, you have all the right and time in the world to do so. But again, that's your personal choice, not "systemic".
If enough people make the same personal choice, it's fair to assume that there's an underlying reason for it. In that case, appealing to the choice itself is fruitless -- look at the reasons for the choice.