From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 7 04:34:59 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C9CE516A4CE for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2004 04:34:59 -0800 (PST) Received: from vhost109.his.com (vhost109.his.com [216.194.225.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 78F5043D48 for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2004 04:34:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Received: from [10.0.1.4] (localhost.his.com [127.0.0.1]) by vhost109.his.com (8.12.6p3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id i07CYexk037558; Wed, 7 Jan 2004 07:34:54 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20040107041307.GA1674@online.fr> References: <20040107041307.GA1674@online.fr> Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 12:55:25 +0100 To: Rahul Siddharthan From: Brad Knowles Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" cc: Brad Knowles cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:34:59 -0000 At 11:13 PM -0500 2004/01/06, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > So Matt was easy with newbies and aggressive with other developers. There was much more fallout from that than you indicate. Being pissy with other developers meant being pissy in general on the -current mailing list, and meant being pissy with a lot of other people. As much good as he has done for FreeBSD in the past, he was doing more harm than good. When a child is in an abusive household, even if the abuse is not being personally directed at him, there is a highly negative effect on that child which can never be erased. Just being in the vicinity of the abuse is enough. Likewise with newbies in a project where there are frequent public thermonuclear exchanges between highly placed members of the project, in a constant environment of hatred, loathing, sniping, and general pissyness. For the good of the project, it was time for him to either grow up or leave. He made his choice. That's not to say that he didn't make some fantastic contributions to FreeBSD, but in the end his personality problems outweighed his technical contributions. True, he wasn't alone in this kind of behaviour, but it does take two (at least two) to have an argument, and whether he instigated more of the arguments than anyone else, he was the one who most frequently made them worse. I had a problem with my temper when I was in school. I remember being poked and prodded by the bullies, trying to get a reaction from me. I remember being sent to the principal's office more often than just about anyone else. I wasn't the direct cause of the fights, but I was allowing myself to be pushed to the point where I started swinging. I learned to control my temper. I can't say whether or not the is the same kind of situation that Matt has found himself in, but for whatever reason, in the past he has not seemed like he had the ability or the willingness to control his temper. Now, I haven't seen any outbursts from him recently, but then he's been off in his own corner doing his own thing, and hasn't been on these mailing lists very much. Personally, I would like very much to see Matt return to the FreeBSD project, but before I would be willing to let him come back, I would want to see strong evidence that he's been put in similar situations since he left and that he had the self-control necessary to not respond in the same manner that we know all too well. -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+ !w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++) tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)