[squeak-dev] Resolution of Contentious Issues

Casey Ransberger casey.obrien.r at gmail.com
Sun May 8 22:07:23 UTC 2011


Good people of Squeak,

I've seen a few rounds of discussion around contentious issues. Namespaces
are a fantastic example. Some of these issues, (I'll call them Oddballs,)
just don't like getting resolved. The pattern is that almost everyone who
speaks out has a different idea about how to #doIt. The conversation usually
goes in a long circle, and then gets garbage collected when everyone gets
too fatigued with the debate to continue it.

Later, often much later, someone posts about the same topic again. Usually
it's a newbie who isn't aware of the longstanding debate *raises hand.*
Other times it's someone who's been around a little while and is frustrated
because the discussion died again *raises hand*. Either way, a message gets
sent that creates a new instance of the discussion in question. Many
arguments are repeated, and usually the thread runs out of references and is
eaten by the GC again.

I often wonder what the silent majority think about Oddball issues. We
usually have a very small group of people who are actually compelled to
post. I thought we might try using the voting machinery we have set up for
board elections as a way of collecting information (polling) about the
popularity of various problems we have (or don't actually have but think we
have!) in the community. I'm not sure we even need to treat it all that
seriously... it would be neat to be able to rank out the popularity of
various approaches to e.g. namespaces somehow, though, so I'd know which
project to go offer to help hack on.

I'm thinking of this in part after a conversation that happened at the first
SSUG meeting. We talked about how we tend to argue in circles in squeak-dev,
while the Pharo folk set up a "working group" to make decisions about stuff
like this, and then as a result get to make progress, even on issues which
are contentious in their community. I don't know if we actually need or want
a "working group," whatever that is, but it would be nice to _have a pulse
on the desires of the broader Squeak community._

To be clear: I just want to be able to rank the popularity of people's
solutions to various problems... not compel anyone to action. When there's
two problems a) contention, and b) no workable implementation, it would be
nice to get some of the contention out of the way so that I can quit arguing
on a mailing list and #doIt.

Thoughts? Love it? Hate it?

-- 
Casey Ransberger
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