Which styles to keep?

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday 16 August 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> On Aug 16, 2007, at 3:49 PM, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> > Because we've got plenty of hands on board to actually finish the
> > thing per
> > spec and on time, of course. We can easily afford to junk contributors
> > because they don't agree with you.
>
> Seriously, if someone jumps ship just because KDE takes a business/
> market-oriented direction (which pretty much means that it starts
> tackling needs of non-geek users), is that "junking" him ? In my mind
> it's more like he's just being immature.

let's leave the either/or thinking at the door and try considering the 
both/and here:

- KDE contributors and projects can make business and market-oriented 
decisions and move things in a more "professional" direction where that 
improves things

- KDE can support a "pure" community where the 'target market' *is* the 
contributor and community member

if community members feel the "professionalism" orientation is impeding their 
enjoyment in life, we need to ask why and how that can be resolved.

if community members are lashing out against "professonalism" because it is 
different, we need to realize that is because of a lack of trust and work on 
building trust there. that does mean that community members need to be 
willing to work towards trust (that's part of the both/and as well)

if the professionalism proponents are trying to bypass or cut off the 
community parts, we need also need to ask why and resolve that.

as for losing/gaining people: the hard reality is that we've always lost 
people. the easy reality is that we've always gained people, too. the goal 
should be to gain as many people as possible, while losing as few people and, 
particularly, while (most importantly) inspiring those who are the biggest 
contributors and most central to the community aparatus.

one thing that is for sure: we will succeed less spectacularly if those who 
identify themselves as "more community" are fighting with those who identify 
themselves as "more professionalism" (nobody is purely one or the other, 
imho).

let's find our common ground and work on that. i think we have *way* more 
common ground than not, and i think we all value every contributor who pulls 
things forward.

that artwork is deemed devisive proves that point. if "what widgets look like"  
is our Big Point To Argue with each other, we're doing pretty damn well. so 
let's cut each other the slack we all deserve in recognition of our 
closeness.

personally i think we can have BOTH professionalism (Oxy defaults) AND 
community (shipped alternative widget styles) without harming either but 
supporting both.

i think we can extend this way of addressing the issue beyond artwork and to 
lots of other things, as well, btw =)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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