[development] #drupal and #drupal-contribute split (Was: Re: Proposal: Move all dev support off this list to new StackExchange site)

[Earl Miles]

On 3/18/2011 1:52 PM, Sam Tresler wrote:
>> Really, a way to translate what you're saying is that you'd rather *I*
>> didn't have a place where I can participate, because I don't want to be
>> inundated with support requests.
> 
> This isn't about you.  That thinking is part of the problem, in my
> opinion.  We're having a conversation here about what is best for
> Drupal, not what is best for the developers.  I'm not trying to be
> inflammatory, but making the project worse for the end users, the
> documenters, the forum posters, and various other people who bring good
> things to the table isn't a tenable solution.

Prior to #drupal-contribute being split out, we had a bot that would,
several times a day, 'correct' people about which channel they should be
asking support questions in. Sometimes these corrections were taken
amiss. No matter how politely we framed them, I always found these
corrections to be offensive.

One of the reasons I left #drupal was because I was tired of how
offensive that was.

What webchick wants is a place where everyone can gather and be happy.
But, like you just said, we can't please everyone.

If the choice is to please new people who may or may not contribute, who
may or may not stick around, at the expense of people who are
contributing and have stuck around, that is going to create churn.

I'm not in agreement with the camp that says our current system is
telling new users to go away. I think our OLD system was telling new
users to go away, by throwing them into an environment that they
fundamentally won't be ready for.

And I think it's wrong to insist that people who are on IRC to do work
have to stick around in an environment where they will have to watch a
bot tell new users to screw off (in nicer words...well, eventually. For
at least a year it was NOT nicer words) is fundamentally wrong and
counterproductive.

Naturally, I find it interesting that when I tried to write from my
experience and my example and how I use IRC, the responses are "This
isn't about you."

Why are you allowed to write about your experiences as being normal, yet
my experience makes me elitist and/or childish? Why is it you're
assuming that I'm only doing this to make my life easier, and screw the
newbies? Am I really that curmudgeonly?

So, making this about me: I just interpreted, "Get off IRC. It's for new
people." (Yes, that's tongue in cheek).