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Re: Creating gcc-newbies mailing list
On 26 Jul 2007 15:53:09 -0700, Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> wrote:
> Joe Buck <Joe.Buck@synopsys.COM> writes:
>
> > I think that when we do steer someone to a different list, we could
> > take more care to be polite about it than we sometimes are.
>
> I agree. I also think we should all try harder to avoid flippant or
> non-responsive replies to new developers. I think it's important for
> the long-term growth of gcc for us to encourage new developers.
There were several presentations at OSCON that touched on these
issues: Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman's "poisonous people"
talk, while mostly about how to deal with difficult people, also
touched on how to establish an expectation of courtesy and respect.
The perceived leaders of the community need to make gentle but public
corrections when someone doesn't reply well, even if the person being
criticized is a leading contributor. The goal is to have everyone
know the rules, and know that they apply to everyone.
The first and third talks are the ones relevant here:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2007/view/e_spkr/2762
And Karl Fogel's book goes into exactly these issues in detail:
http://producingoss.com/en/setting-tone.html