[maemo-developers] How to destroy your community

[From: tero.kojo at nokia.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: maemo-developers-bounces at maemo.org [mailto:maemo-developers-
> bounces at maemo.org] On Behalf Of ext Jeff Moe
> Sent: 19 January, 2010 01:41
> To: maemo-developers at maemo.org
> Subject: LCA: How to destroy your community
> 
> Here is a good article in LWN about a presentation by Josh Berkus. How
> many of these points apply to Nokia? I'm afraid way too many.
> 
> http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/370157/2a06baf10df8e58a/

Good read!

> Some gems:
> 1) "It's also important to set up an official web site which is down as
> often as it's up. It's not enough to have no web site at all; in such
> situations, the community has an irritating habit of creating sites of
> its own. But a flaky site can forestall the creation of those sites,
> ensuring that information is hard to find. "

Jeff, you have been hanging around here for what, 2 months?
And those two months have been the time in which this place has seen it's biggest growth of all time. Sure that made the system break in the corners, but it's being fixed.

Hang around for a couple of more years and then come back with the statistics.

> 3) "There should be no useful information about the code, build
> methods, the patch submission process, the release process, or anything
> else. Then, when people ask for help, tell them to RTFM."
> 
> 4) "Project decisions should be made in closed-door meetings."
> 
> 5) "Employ large amounts of legalese."
> 
> 7) "Keep the decision-making powers unclear"
> 
> 8) "Screw around with licensing. Community members tend to care a lot
> about licenses, so changing the licensing can be a good way to make
> them go elsewhere. Even better is to talk a lot about license changes
> without actually changing anything;"
> 
> 10) "Silence. Don't answer queries, don't say anything. A company which
> masters this technique may not need any of the others; it is the most
> effective community destroyer of them all. "

If you start a discussion in a tone of voice that is asking for a fight, we often disregard the discussion. We aren't here to pick fights, but to try and do something productive.

You do get many things done, but your communication style isn't polite. I do understand that controversy can bring about change, but it can also polarize situations.

Tero

> -Jeff
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