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Date:      Mon, 3 Feb 2003 17:03:21 -0500
From:      Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>
To:        Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org>
Cc:        chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: dillon@'s commit bit: I object
Message-ID:  <20030203170321.I1455@papagena.rockefeller.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1030203163157.80901N-100000@fledge.watson.org>

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Robert Watson wrote:
> The short of it is that Matt was unable to treat many of his fellow
> developers with the civility and respect that they deserve.

Presumably this was on -developers or in private mail, since I can't
find any serious examples in the other archives in the recent past,
but on the contrary, several extremely helpful discussions from him
(on the new scheduler, disk cache expiry etc).

As you say, occasional disagreements and flames are a fact of life.
However, as a lurker and a rather rare poster on the "technical"
lists, my impression is that Matt is one of the most friendly,
enthusiastic and genuinely helpful people around (apart from his
unquestioned merits as a hacker).  If rudeness is a criterion for
having a commit bit removed, surely there must have been several
candidates ahead of Matt in the queue.  Or maybe it was they who
eventually squashed him.

> I'd ask that those passing judgement on
> this action take into account that this was given long and hard
> consideration, and that it was not a decision taken lightly or without
> regret.

I appreciate that, of course.  That doesn't mean the decision doesn't
worry me (or, I imagine, many other people here).

I also scan the linux kernel mailing list now and then, and the
flamewars there dwarf those on the freebsd lists by orders of
magnitude.  Nevertheless, things continue, nobody (afaik) is thrown
out for bad behaviour -- at worst, Linus insists on an intermediary to
filter the discussion/patches -- and very few have ever walked away in
a huff.  Newcomers are made to feel welcome.  In contrast, time and
again newbies complain about the elitist attitude of FreeBSD.  That
can be excused, or at least "argued away", but throwing out someone of
the calibre of Matt Dillon is beyond belief.   Maybe that's the real
reason linux is more successful in the real world.  At least the
FreeBSD core team should think about it.

- Rahul

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