Developers of Sympa

[Xavier Bachelot <address@concealed>]

On 10/8/18 10:33 AM, IKEDA Soji wrote:
> I decided to write as short as possible.  After all, this issue will
> provide no benefit to development of Sympa, and we should not waste
> the time and resources anymore.
>
> - I hope Marc to learn about what is actually done on the community.
>    As I hear he is employed by RENATER as a full-time staff to
>    provide information about one FLOSS community to the others and
>    vice versa, observing what is done on the communuty is the
>    important part of his mission.
>
> - However, I think, he has not done well on Sympa community in this
>    one year.  For example: Amazingly, he has hardly ever read sources
>    of Sympa; OTOH He boycotted GitHub, freenode and forced us to report
>    our activity on the list (we are not your butlers!); He hasn't
>    reported a trouble with a particular version for months; and so on,
>    and so on.
>
>    Thus, I hope Marc to distance himself from the community --- so
>    that he will do what he has not been done in the past one year ---
>    at least in coming one year.
>
> - Before distancing from the community, I wish him to release
>    previleges on the services: Registration of #sympa channel; billing
>    contact of GitHub organization sympa-community; and so on (are
>    there anything else? Please let us know).
>
>    Why I wish to release them is just practical: We have sometimes
>    felt inconvenient with his absence so far, even saying for one
>    year.
>
>    * Forgive my selfishness, but don't transfer such privileges to
>      me (Soji).  I can't carry more housekeeping works than I have
>      already carried.  Please ask someone else.
>
> - However, even out of the community, he will be able to discharge
>    his duties: To provide information about Sympa community to the
>    others, and to persuade people how Sympa is useful for many
>    users (institutions).  It will be appreciated for us that he will
>    devote himself to his mission.
>
>    Of course, if he prefer, he can keep in touch to the sources of
>    Sympa with his fork of his space on GitHub, as many people already
>    do.  None prevent him from thinking about Sympa.
>
>    In the first place, those things are what he could do in this one
>    year so far, either he did or not.
>
>
> Marc, I hope you to accept the requests above.  Of couse I can't
> order you to do this or that: I only can hope.
>
> However, since I hope strongly, if you didn't accept, I want to talk
> with your boss (supervisor or such): Thus, if you didn't, please
> post her/his name and e-mail to this list.
>
>
> Regards,
> -- Soji

Hi Soji, Marc and all,

I have been refraining from commenting for a while, because I thought I  
was too fresh and missed some background.
However, I think we're crossing the boundaries and this may become  
detrimental to Sympa. Speaking for myself, seeing 2 people deeply  
engaged with sympa for years exchanging words of anger is saddening me.

I will not choose one side or the other, I will not point out what could  
have been done in a better way by either of you, or anyone else.
I've been working with both of you, Soji and Marc. You're both dedicated  
to improve and develop further Sympa and you are overall doing an  
amazing job at that. I've always been very impressed with what can be  
accomplished by a handful of developers, working either as part of their  
paid work or on their spare time. This is true for a lot of FOSS  
projects and this is true for Sympa.
Indeed, there is always room for improvement, we are all at time doing  
mistakes, mis-communicating with others, mis-understanding others.
Please assume everyone is acting in good faith and is willing to learn  
from their past mistakes and become better members of the FOSS community  
at large. Also please remember most of us are not using their native  
language.

I would like to respectfully ask you, both Soji and Marc, to take a deep  
breath, think about what you have done for Sympa, what you are doing  
now, and what you will do in the future. I'm sure you'll realize you,  
and us, are all aiming at the same goal. We are too few to have the  
luxury to waste anyone's time on "fights" other than technical ones. And  
even for technical matters, we are all able to do so and still stay  
excellent and civil to each others.

With all due respect and thanks for your work,
Xavier