Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?

[Attila Lendvai]

> Now you might say that this leads to less diversity in the team of
> committers and maintainers as you need a certain level of privilege to
> seriously entertain the idea of dedicating that much time and effort to
> a project and I agree, but I also think this is a bigger reality of
> volunteer work in general.


the ultimate goal is not just diversity, but high efficiency of the people who 
cooperate around Guix, which then translates into a better Guix.

if the "rituals" around Guix contribution were merely a steep initial learning 
curve, then one could argue that it's a kind of filter that helps with the 
signal to noise ratio. but i think it's also a constant hindrance, not just an 
initial learning curve.


> Just because it's brought up a lot of times doesn't mean it's a good
> idea. There is a lot of good things that can be done for our web-based
> front ends; improving the search results on issues.guix.gnu.org would
> be one of them. However, I have little hopes for a web based means to
> submit contributions. I think email should be a format that's
> understood by folks who know how to operate a web browser.


again, i would press the argument that it's not about being able to, but about 
how much effort/attention is wasted on administration (i.e. not on hacking). i 
often have the impression that it took comparable effort to submit a smaller to 
mid size patch than making it.

-- 
• attila lendvai
• PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39
--
“Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent 
and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and 
important.”
        — Thomas Sowell (1930–)