[Python-ideas] (no subject)

[Nick Coghlan]

On 12 April 2016 at 07:36, Keith Curtis <keithcu at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> Many FOSS communities struggle with sustainability, but Python is very
> rich so you've clearly figured it out.
>
> It is easy to say that bug metrics are going in the wrong direction.
> It is also easy to do nothing, or to criticize those who are concerned
> about a systemic issue. Data can be turned into action by leadership
> and plans. It can be helpful to have people who think 5,000 is a big
> number. (Automatically closing old issues doesn't take grit and isn't
> a valid solution.) It seems you could use at least 10 more dedicated
> devs who focus on the official CPython bug count.

Keith, I get it. You're worried about the issue tracker stats, and
apparently believe if you just yell long enough and hard enough here
we'll suddenly go "You know, you're right, we never thought of that,
and we should drop everything else immediately in favour of seeking
funding for full-time core development work".

However, CPython core development is only *one* of the activities the
PSF helps to support (see [1] for a partial list of others), and it's
one where commercial entities can most readily contribute people's
time and energy directly rather than indirectly through the Python
Software Foundation.

As core developers, we're individually free to add our details to the
Motivations & Affiliations page at [2] and negotiate with our current
and future employers for dedicated time to devote to general CPython
maintenance, rather than focusing solely on specific items relevant to
our work.

Folks that aren't core developers yet, but are fortunate enough to
work for organisations with a good career planning process and a
vested interest in Python's continued success are free to negotiate
with their managers to add "become a CPython core developer and spend
some of my working hours on general CPython maintenance" to their
individual career goals.

Any core developer that chooses to do so is also already free to
submit a development grant proposal to the PSF to dedicate some of
their time to issue tracker grooming, and it's a fair bet (although
not a guarantee) that any such grant proposal would be approved as
long as the hourly rate and total amount requested were reasonable,
and the activities to be pursued and the desired outcome were defined
clearly.

However, whether or not anyone chooses to do any of those things is a
decision that takes place in the context of that "health,
relationships, paid work, volunteer work" priority order I mentioned
earlier. Not everyone is going to want to turn a volunteer activity
into a paid one, and not everyone is going to want to prioritise
CPython core development over their other activities. Telling people
"your priorities should be different because I say they should be
different" is an approach that has never worked in volunteer
management, and never *will* work in volunteer management, as
overcoming those differences in intrinsic motivation is the key
rationale for paid employment.

Regards,
Nick.

[1] https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundation/Proposals/StrategicPriorities
[2] https://docs.python.org/devguide/motivations.html

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia