Re: [Fwd: Resignation from GNOME Foundation Membership Committee]

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Mike Newman">

> On a personal note I'm also resigning because I don't enjoy waking up to a
> mailbox full of rubbish asking me on what basis am I qualified to make
> decisions, why I hate some community member or other, why I'm part of the
> gnome foundation when I can't write code, and other less polite things
> involving all sorts of unpleasant things which I won't bore the board with
> :) All pretty childish stuff. I could of course spend time responding to
> the more sensible mails among these, but I somehow doubt it would help.

This is really disappointing, I'm perplexed that this kind of behaviour
could happen in our close-knit community. Personal attacks on contributors -
regardless of the 'glamour' factor of their task - is unkind, unfair, and
wholly inappropriate.

I hope that everyone groks the difficulty of handling this process for the
first time. Mistakes will be made, problems will arise. That's part of the
challenge of getting it right.

A fair bit of this controversy is due to misunderstandings. It seems that
Elliot was not informed of, or did not understand the importance of the
application process, and one of the committee members misunderstood some
points in the guidelines about contributions under employment.

These are small problems, little hurdles on the way to making this whole
Foundation thing work. We need contributors to help that along, we need
active members of the community involved as Foundation members, and we need
confidence in the process.

I hope that Mike receives an apology for the crap he's received, and that
more confidence is bestowed on the Foundation Membership Committee.

Sorry you had to endure this, Mike, thank you for all your work.

- Jeff

-- 
     "Just because I sit in front of a terminal all day doesn't mean I      
      couldn't hunt you down and righteously kick your ass to feed my       
          newfound cannabalism." - Darwinian System Administration