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sm-discuss - Re: [SM-Discuss] Hamish, please note.

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  • From: Hamish Greig <hgreig AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Hamish, please note.
  • Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 12:17:39 +1000

For simplicity I am responding to Seth's and Sandalle's comments in the one
email, and not in point form.
You all are reading too much into my own feelings and motivations.
As I said originally, it is hard to understand why I would want to have my
name and details removed from grimoire files, so I gave examples of problems
I had encountered, that it appeared had not been addressed.
The content of the examples was factual and schabell's name featuring so
prominently was unavoidable, there were other people I could have mentioned,
but only one person embodied so many of the problems. Not mentioning
specifics like names would have turned an unusual request based on facts into
just another vague witch hunt. Mentioning specifics was never about
discrediting anybody or humilating them, it was intended only as an aid to
avoid abstraction of the problems, give them real-time relevance and maybe
even a case to study. Sometimes, in order to objectively discuss problems you
need to look past the perpetrator(s) and find the real problem behind them.
It is easy to label "so-and-so" as an incompetent or a moron and dismiss the
problem as specific to their own failings but it is better to move past the
person to the actual problem and then find a solution for it. Ignore that
many problems involve the same people and look at the facts.

But because I am repeatedly accused of personally attacking schabell, I am
not
going to go through the whole thing in detail all over again. You can
interpret the facts however you want, but there are problems I still see in
evidence, the people involved are inconsequential.
Inadequate testing of changes before perforce submission is still causing
problems. Anyone who hasn't learnt to test their work thoroughly needs to
have their direct access rights removed until they can prove they have learnt
from their mistakes and are testing their work. Worst case, a poor bugfix in
the core spell "ncurses" could turn away just as many new users as 9
problematic sorcery releases. Best case, an experienced developer will have
to spend time correcting problems on a remote login box when bash or ssh stop
functioning properly
Not receiving perforce notices for the entire project has already lead to
communication problems and breakdowns, all developers need to receive those
notices, to be aware of project activity and ensure compatibility between
efforts and stop conflicting submissions. I know the new leads all receive
them, but not everyone else does and that is an accident waiting to happen
Open, honest discussion of problems is needed (in the style of the social
contract). Everyone volunteered needs to be willing to discuss their work
objectively. Problems need to be discussed openly, not swept under the
carpet. Everyone makes mistakes, how they are dealt with is the key issue.
Being able to take it on the chin, to say "oops, that was a bit silly. Sorry,
I'll fix that" or even "Sorry my mistake, but I'm flat out with (*?!) , can
anyone else fix this for me ?" is a common-sense requirement for volunteering
to work in open source (read public domain). Refusing to talk about one's
work, refusing to rationally or logically explain the process of arriving at
a decision (passion is allowed, even wanted,silence or ranting is not) is the
opposite of the open source environment. You can liken it to the old
Cathedral and Bazaar argument if you want.

I have said it many times before, what the project decides to do about these,
and other (related) problems is not my decision. I do not advocate any
specific action (punitive or otherwise), I have mentioned some possibilites,
even some extreme possibilites, but that was mostly just laying foundations
to get a real discussion started, and to have some solutions worked out and
recorded. Many of you already know that had it been my sole decision, when I
found out about the perforce notice problem, given the recent problem with
the 1.0 release, the recent instability and other recent communication
problems, I would have issued a formal news statement thanking Eric Schabell
for all his efforts on behalf of SMGL, but due to some internal disagreements
he was no longer an active smgl developer, and then remove all his privileges
and access rights. Just because that was my preferred action doesn't mean I
am now full of resentment and anger towards schabell or any other person or
developer.
I left for many reasons, but one was because it felt dishonest to sweep the
problems under the carpet and try to start fresh, when many of those problems
hadn't been accepted by the people involved and my continuing support of the
project felt like some clandestine conspiracy to protect (high profile or
not) people from being accountable for their own problems. I had already
overlooked too many things and continuing to do so was too big a compromise
for me to make.
I understood most of the problems had been recognised by new management and
senior developers though and would not be allowed to continue, so I left
thinking that the necessary changes would be made.

I don't know what the majority is doing in SMGL now, but I do know that
everything I have mentioned is still relevant if you look into it. So all I
want now is for my name and details to be removed from the files that smgl
is distributing with the grimoire, sorcery and the iso. I am happy to assign
the rights for those works to SMGL or to any specific developer.

I originally added some facts to supprt my request, ignoring the possibility
it would appear to be a personal attack, because to the best of my knowledge
those facts had not been made public (in the spirit of the social contract)
and they are important to the request but that seems to have been
misunderstood, so I apologise for dragging this simple request out like it
has been.

Hamish




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