Proposal: Author status for Teo Mrnjavac and Alejandro Wainzinger

[Bart Cerneels]

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 11:06, Seb Ruiz<ruiz at kde.org> wrote:
> 2009/8/22 Nikolaj Hald Nielsen <nhnfreespirit at gmail.com>:
>> I propose that we add Teo and Alejandro to the list of Amarok authors.
>> Both have been with us for a while now and have completed 2 large
>> projects. I believe that both will be important members of the Amarok
>> team for a long time to come.
>
> Yes, as do I.
>
>> Also, it has been quite a long time since we added new authors.
>
> Please don't use this as a justification for adding authors. This is
> an entirely bogus reason.
>
>>
>> Reasons for suggesting Teo:
>>
>> - Did not get accepted to GSoC last year but still completeld his project.
>> - Initially the quality of code and community interaction was not
>> great, but this has improved immensely since.
>> - Helped me out by getting a major rewrite of the playlist layout
>> editor done in time for 2.1 when I did not have time.
>> - Has worked his butt of this GSoC to make the playlist in 2.2 the
>> coolest most configurable ever, and has cleaned up the structure of
>> the playlist code while doing so.
>> - Has already moves on to (and pretty much implemented) a project of
>> his own design that I think will prove very significant, namely
>> OpenDesktop integration in the "About" dialog. I think this is very
>> cool and find it very likely that other apps will start using this
>> code.
>> - Has attended Akademy in 2008 and helped me man the booth at
>> OpensouceDays in Copenhagen last year,
>
> Whilst the above are all true, I think that Teo still has a lot to
> learn about our community. I find that at times he can be abrasive
> with other team members and doesn't take criticism well. Whilst he is
> a good coder and is creating, Teo needs to learn about playing as a
> team member and developing software not by himself but rather with
> others. He has obviously done this significantly with you, Nikolaj but
> I haven't really seen him form any significantly strong bonds with
> other community members.

I've had some very productive and pleasant interactions with Teo the
past few months. So I think this is just your personal experience (and
perhaps a bit of recent disagreement on technical issues?).

> Teo should be commended on the improvement on
> his code quality and development skills since he first started
> committing to the project last year. He needs to remember, that with a
> good natural ability comes stubbornness, and with stubbornness comes
> arrogance (and eventually complacency).
>
> I support Teo as a member of our team, however would like to see some
> improvements in his community and people categories before
> recommending him to be promoted to author.
>
>>
>> Reasons for suggesting Alejandro:
>>
>> - Has been accepted for and has completed 2 important GSoC projects.
>> - Has stuck around and contributed code outside of GSoC.
>> - Has attended Akademy twice.
>> ( obviously I have worked more closely with Teo, but I definitely
>> think Alejandro deserves author status as well)
>
> Alejandro, like Teo, is also a good candidate. He bonds well with
> other members of the community and integrates well all round. However
> for Alex, I feel that he still needs to make more of a commitment to
> the Amarok project by working on the code when not motivated by money
> - both large code contribution stints that Alex has made have been
> GSoC related. I would like to see Alex more involved in the Amarok
> project on a day to day basis.

I wouldn't be involved at all in Amarok if I was being generally
active the way Alejandro is (traveling, school, ...). That he finds
the time and energy is just amazing to me. So he definitely spends a
lot of his available time on amarok as physics allow him to. I don't
blame him for not having a time machine.

>
> Over all, I would like to see a more consistent dedication to the
> project from both candidates before they are promoted to the Author
> status. They are both definitely on the right track and could see them
> improving rapidly if this is what they want.

I wouldn't say it's to soon. Even though it took longer for me to
become listed among the authors. It didn't really make me feel any
different towards the project, but for other people it might be a
really good motivator to continue being active.

And both have, mainly because of GSoC, gained "ownership" over major
frameworks within Amarok (The Playlist and mediadevices). So they are
authors of those parts already.

Wasn't they point of GSoC getting new people involved very tightly?
Their projects success is a good argument for authorship.

>
> Best regards (especially to both nominees),
> Seb
>
> ps - these are my personal thoughts and obviously do not reflect that
> of the "Amarok project". If anybody feels that I am being too harsh,
> or that we have not judged previous candidates with such scrutiny,
> please voice your thoughts.
>
> pps - of course, you should still voice your opinion if you feel that
> you have something important to say.
>