Re: Better communication

[Duncaen <Duncaen@users.noreply.github.com>]

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New comment by Duncaen on void-packages repository

https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/45892#issuecomment-1704354724

Comment:
Users don't even read INTSALL.msg's, adding a bunch of PRs and Issues doesn't provide any benefit.

We don't ask users or have polls to make decisions, maintainers and contributors make decisions by taking time and implementing changes. This generally works well because the maintainers and contributors generally try to maintain compatibility and avoid causing trouble with changes. This is not debian and its bureaucracy, which comes with up and downsides.

The cryptocurrency removal was not well communicated with some contributors who later stepped up and took over maintenance and could have been avoided by pinging/tagging all contributors in the PR.

In the end because of the picture you are trying to paint of negative experiences and what not, I don't really care. I would just close this Issues to be honest. You didn't like the decision of dropping the minecraft launcher from the repository and replacing it with an actively maintained fork, that's fine. You thought your PR was closed with no comment, but it was merged and there was even a comment later that it was reverted. 

> I have lost all trust in the current maintainers of this project. I still like this distribution and really wish I could continue using it without worrying. I want things to improve. The usual disgruntled response is "Yeah, well, I'm gonna go build my own distribution. With blackjack and hookers!", but I don't have the desire, skill or time to maintain a gnu+linux distribution or a repo. Instead I am making my voice known and maybe something positive can happen.

Its gnu/linux.

> I believe the main issue is one of communication. I think solving communication between users and maintainers would do void a lot of good. I would like to get an opinion from the maintainers on this.

The issue tracker is open and we don't exclude anyone from contributing.

> Every encounter I have had with the maintainers has been a negative one for the last few years. Look I understand opensource work pays nothing and is often a thankless job. But I have interacted with maintainers for other project and it never was this bad. Consistently moves are made with zero attempt to communicate them before they are done. This is not a one-off, this is a pattern, I will list the last 3 times that upsetting actions have been done before communicating them from my memory.

Wow that sounds bad, what did they do to you?



> 1. I have attempted to a good user and to give back, on my first contribution I had my Pull request closed with no explanation as to why. (An explanation did come, but it was a day later, after I gave up.) https://web.archive.org/web/20230903041209/https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/37370 While I still feel it was a bit rude, I forgive this one. (please do not harass any of the people involved)

As mentioned in an earlier reply, it was merged and two days later the contributor who merged it commented about reverting it since it caused issues. There is nothing rude about it. You are making this up because it fits your narrative.

>  2. Another upsetting action the maintainers have done is hijacking an existing packages and shipping a different program under the same name with zero communication about it before they did so. https://web.archive.org/web/20230903034123/https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/40044 This one alone under other a sightly different context would of had mobs of angry people & is still in principle an unacceptable behavior. The new launcher was not 1 to 1 compatible & gave me quite the scare, for a small amount of time thought my 7 year old world was lost, that was stressful.

1. You should have backups.
2. xbps does not delete user data.
3. There was internal drama with the launcher and there was the possibility of malware.
4. The fork is evidently now more actively maintained.

>  3. This: Most users do not interact with the maintainers of the software they use. There is a silent majority that is not hanging out in the IRC. Given the current popular stance on Crypto, I'm guessing this has more then just technical motivations, I understand not adding new coins, but looking at the Monero wallet, this clearly is a quick and dirty hit job, The Monero wallet was removed, but the debug and development files are still showing up in the search. https://web.archive.org/web/20230903044828/https://voidlinux.org/packages/?arch=x86_64&q=monero

I give you that this was miscommunicated between contributors, more people should have been pinged/tagged.

> I do not appreciate the maintainers making life style choices for me, Whats next? Are you going to remove TOR, that allows you to access and do bad things. Maybe void should remove everything with encryption, it's what bad people use to hide things. I use to run xbps-install -Suy weekly, keeping my system up to date, Now hesitate to update, every time I do so there is a chance something annoying will be done by the maintainers and that I should go double check.

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