Open Stack

On Thu, 2015-02-12 at 16:01 +0000, Amrith Kumar wrote:
> How is a private IRC channel any different from a culture of private
> discussions? Having a chat over lunch, in the hallway, on the
> telephone, etc., 

I will articulate again why I think that a group of leaders of OpenStack
*should not* establish a *permanent* private channel for them to hang
out.  This community values openness, all the leaders of this community
are accessible, have open-door policies. This community (call it
'organization' if you prefer) has values and habits, all revolve around
public and accessible discussions. A *permanent* private channel for
OpenStack has nothing to do in this community and should not exist.

The causes for this permanent channel need to be identified and removed.

> Let me be honest with you and say this. If you or someone else can
> show me a good reason why the IRC channel (password protected) that I
> participate in is somehow bad for open communication, I will be happy
> to fix that. 

No, sorry, it has to be the other way around: we've been having IRC
public channels and public conversations for years and we've created one
of the largest, probably the fastest growing open source collaboration
out there. It's up to you to demonstrate why you need a private
*permanent* channel. 

> And so far, no real indication of why IRC is worse than a private
> phone call or a water-cooler conversation on a regular basis. 

Multiple people have explained why already and you're choosing to ignore
their words: permanent private IRC channels are a bad habit that
reinforces a bad, anti-social behavior. When people develop the habit of
hanging out separately from the rest, aristocracies start to emerge.
That's bad for an open and democratic meritocracy like OpenStack.

> Stefano, I agree. Private conversations should be the norm. 

That's not what I wanted to say. I'm saying the exact opposite: Private
conversations should *not* be the norm, even though they happen often
and are necessary, channes for private conversations should be created
ad-hoc when/where needed and destroyed afterwards. 

If we need private conversations so much to justify the creation of an
elitarian place for people to permanently hangout there we have a very
large problem that needs to be fixed.

Why do you need to hang out in private with fellow developers?

/stef