[theforum] Spraying machine gun fire around without a target(was Re: Vote Request)

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Mon Sep 11 12:55:59 CDT 2006


On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:24:08 -0300, Sarah Adams <mr.sanders at geekjock.ca> wrote:
>> ...didn't bother waiting for any approval though, did he?
> 
> I'm assuming he took the lack of responses as a tacit approval. I know I
> did.

>> I'm *entirely fscking NOT OK* with someone making that change
>> without recourse to the rest of us.
> 
> Your response to this seems somewhat unjustified and definitely far too
> harsh given that no harm was done or intended. We're all just trying to
> do what's best for evolt (or figure out what that is) so let's all keep
> that in mind when interacting with each other and keep it friendly.

Sarah

I'm not disagreeing with you, but to offer a wee bit of historical perspective here, part of the reason for the insistence on voting and suchlike is because we were in a place where people were making public changes and issuing public statements about evolt without consulting anyone, and (worse) without considering what anyone *might* have to say on the matter.

If we want to move (back) to a more dynamic way of working, we need to build trust. If you (generic) want to implement stuff without discussing it/getting it approved first, you need to have built a reservoir of trust with enough people who will back you up if things go sticky. And like it or not, some people are always going to be more influential (read: complain louder!) than others.

Coming into theforum like a whirlwind from (relative and recent) nowhere means you're unlikely to have done that. Those who have been here, and have been working, for ages have already gained much of that trust. Thus (to pick a non-random example) Dean could probably do anything non-totally-dumb without discussing it first, and get away with it. But then, he'd be unlikely to do that.

This is kind of a long way of saying this: Sure, go ahead, do stuff on your own initiative. But with that comes the responsibility that you might get a kicking for it. Even if you don't go through the formality, *talk* to people first - take temperature, see what people think. That way you filter out the dumb stuff.

Cheers
Martin

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