[ros-dev] Grievance

[Aleksey Bragin]

Thanks for descriptive, and, what's even more important, a neutral,  
answer, without mutual blamings of someone (be it me, Magnus, or  
anyone else), I highly appreciate that.

We'll work out something for future, I'm sure, but there is no such  
thing as overdependence. It's like saying, "Magnus took whole DirectX  
development into his hands, it created an overdependance on him since  
noone else dared to touch this area". Or, "Alex Ionescu rewrote  
critical parts of the kernel, and it created an overdependance on  
him". I think you agree that sounds just silly, but that was  
absolutely the same what you were saying :)


With the best regards,
Aleksey Bragin.

On Jun 25, 2008, at 9:30 PM, Zachary Gorden wrote:

> Since I'm stuck at work without IRC, I need to do this the old  
> fashioned way during my lunch break.  I've followed the general  
> discussion thanks to the IRC logs of other people, so here goes.
>
> First, Aleksey, you said that the intial blowup occurred because  
> Magnus went public and etc with what you said was a private issue  
> between him and you.  But you also said that his development/commit  
> pattern was hurting the project.  If that was the case, then I  
> personally don't think it should have stayed an issue between just  
> the two of you.  If his changes were that disruptive, it's a matter  
> that every member of the project needs to help deal with.  And this  
> should be the case no matter who the person is.
> Second, the need for a "repository coordinator" or someone besides  
> yourself who has the ability to add and remove commit access is not  
> merely an administrative matter.  The lack of such a person placed  
> more strain on you in the recent incident because the only person  
> Magnus could go to after his commit access was limited was you, a  
> person who had become extremely frustrated with him.  Frustration  
> can go both ways, as both of you became pissed at the other.  Not  
> the best mood to be in to resolve issues.  While you, as the  
> project coordinator, are the one who lays down a general direction  
> for the project, it doesn't mean you need to act as the enforcer.   
> Having one or two people who overlap in certain areas of  
> responsibility helps let you avoid becoming too entangled in one  
> particular issue and becoming too personally invested in it.  In a  
> major disagreement, that is definitely something to avoid.
>
> The number of developers is still small, so it's not out of the  
> ordinary that you pay personal attention to things you think are  
> important or problematic.  That's also not a bad thing, but you  
> could easily become overextended and overworked.  It also creates  
> an overdependence on you for certain, mundane matters, which  
> further spread you thin.  You also may forget or not even be aware  
> that a certain someone else may be able to help you with a specific  
> issue, simply because that person never found such an issue falling  
> into his/her (one day) field of responsibility.
>
> There are plenty of people around you who can help you deal with  
> these matters, just trust us to stay on the path you set.  Even if  
> you feel a developer isn't complying, that doesn't mean you  
> personally need to go after them.  The rest of us are here and if  
> we know of the problem and how serious you think it is, we'd be  
> able to help.
>
> Anyways, that's my say in this entire affair.  Also, the me logged  
> in right now is my comp at home, for logging purposes, so I won't  
> respond on IRC until I get home.