• Bits from the Community Team, October 2020

    From Jean-Philippe MENGUAL@21:1/5 to All on Tue Oct 20 21:50:02 2020
    Dear fellow Developers,

    As we try to do quarterly, here is an update about the Community Team activities.

    * As suggested in our last bits mail, we have continued to grow our
    team. Sruthi Chandran and Andrew M A Cater have joined us. Welcome, Friends!

    * We made 3 presentations about the team and our activity:
    Minidebconf Online [1], GUADEC (GNOME annual meeting) online, and a
    BoF at DebConf20 [2].

    * We had a meeting with the new DPL, to coordinate our actions,
    approaches and examine together how to improve our activity.

    Now regarding our core activities. Since the last "bits" in February:

    * We were requested to act as moderator of mailing lists several
    times. For teams lists, we tried to give people ways to make easier
    the dialog, stay welcoming for new contributors and not discourage
    them.

    * We were also asked for advice about 2 packages, one in terms of
    discussions in the BTS and another in the package's wording.

    * In one case, while the reporter thought it was ignored by the team and they
    did not value his contributions, the situation is a lack of manpower in the
    team, so a more global solution is needed and more difficult to find.
    Other requests (3) had the same kind of issue, where persons in the teams had
    difficulties to talk each other quitely in technical debates, the reporters
    being worried about how their contribution was valuable and compliant with the
    teams process.

    * For users list, we only requested the users to respect the CoC, in
    general messages, which was enough to put up hurt people and make
    calm. We tend to think a discuss is needed about the mailing lists
    moderation, to know who should do it when needed. It may affect
    other communication channels eg. IRC.

    * Two case needed our mediation, between two Debian developers about a
    packaging issue. We tried to make them understand each other, so that they
    can understand better their feedbacks and improve their behaviors.

    * We also had contacts with the debconf team, to ensure the CoC is
    correctly warrantied by public and clear processes for anybody. It
    is all the more needed as the harassment risk seems to increase
    again from some persons, so we need to ensure everybody feels
    protected and confortable.

    * Debconf20 online: the event online was very wonderful and we think attendees
    were pleased with it. The CT was requested 3 explicit actions about the CoC.
    In one case we needed to explain 1) how the first reaction could be legitimate
    from the person; 2) how the form was not. In another case, we did not notice
    any violation of the CoC, but tried to explain how the raised facts should be seen with calm and neutrality, regardless
    the personal backgrouunds. An issue was raised about how the CoC is relevant
    to prevent some potential unacceptable actions. The is thinking about writing
    some opinions about the different articles of the CoC, to explicit how it
    should be understood, from our point of view, and how we do when we are
    requested against it, without needing to amend it itself.

    Last, but not least, as always we are looking for more help in our team!
    And Steve having put it better that I could, I'll quote him:

    "While we strongly believe that making Debian a good and welcoming place
    for collaboration is a responsibility of *all* members of our community, there's also a need for dedicated people to assist when things are not
    working so well. If you think you'd like to help, please contact us - we promise not to bite!

    [1] https://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2020/MiniDebConfOnline/community_team.lq.webm
    [2] http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/debian-meetings/2020/DebConf20/103-meet-the-community-team.webm

    --
    For the CT
    --



    Jean-Philippe MENGUAL
    Debian Developer non uploading
    Community team member
    Accessibility team member
    debian-l10n-french team member
    President of Debian France non-profit organization

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