Open Stack

On 23/09/16 02:19, Amrith Kumar wrote:
> Joshua,
> 
> I think Steve and you may be missing the point of my email. It *IS* because I want to be open and inviting that I even asked the question, and what I'm asking for is how to deal with it.
> 
> All Steve says is " The fact that a new-to-openstack contributor would make such and error doesn’t warrant such a negative response even if it a hassle for the various PTLs and core reviewer teams to deal with".
> 
> I'm not proposing a negative response, I'm asking how to deal with it.
> 
> What, for example, does one do if a patch is proposed virtually identically in a half dozen (or two dozen) projects by someone and is totally bat-shit crazy? Merely -1'ing it and offering to help in a private email is not really the answer. I've tried it.

We all have. And we keep doing it. And doing it again.

> 
> Having a file in the projects repo that talks about guidelines for contributions isn't it either. We have one of those. It is up to the contributor to read it; yes, I can keep pointing contributors to that but this is a systemic problem which I'm hoping to address. 

It's only systemic in the sense that it's standard human behaviour. And I doubt you'll be able to fix that with some automation.

> 
> What does one do when a contributor continually proposes one line changes that fix typos in comments (yes, really). At some point, these changes (while absolutely, and unarguably valid) begin to be a drag on the community.

Coach. Train. Communicate.

> 
> What I'm asking for is something, something that may cross project boundaries, that will help bring contributors onto openstack, and rapidly bring them to the point where they are contributing at a level that materially benefits the project(s).
> 
> -amrith
> 

Sounds like you're looking for a technical solution to a social problem.

You're the PTL. Make sure there's good documentation about expected behaviours, point to it when you decline a patch, and always be available for mentoring and coaching. Yes, you will teach people the 101 version of contributing a million times over, and you'll repeat yourself ad nauseum, often to the same people. It's called leadership.

If you have a truly toxic person in your midst (hint: these are rarely newcomers, you don't discover these people straight away, I've found), *then* you can do something to remove them from your community. Here's a good place to start: https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/21/no-more-rock-stars/

No one said leadership was easy. 

L

-- 
Lana Brindley
Technical Writer
Rackspace Cloud Builders Australia
http://lanabrindley.com

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