[Events] Brainstorming for an event idea: Earn a nice person

[Lukas Blakk]

On 11-07-02 9:18 PM, Asheesh Laroia wrote:
>
> I have some questions for the people on this Events list:
>
> * Do you think that this would improve open source communities?
>
I totally get what you're hoping for here, and you've put a lot of work 
and thought into this.  Reading this proposal as-is, I'm not sure it 
would improve the open source communities I've dealt with.

The open source community I know very well is Mozilla's and I've found 
that we have a lot of nice people on hand in most public IRC channels 
who are welcoming to new folks and point people towards the information 
they seek.  Whenever I've poked my head into other "communities" (read: 
IRC channels) I've had mixed results but what sticks out for me about 
this idea is that just putting 'nice people' in a room doesn't 
necessarily help. Someone could be very nice to me and not be able to 
answer my questions, and if they are totally new to the community, these 
'nice people' might not know to whom or where I should be directed for 
more information.  I'm worried that the goal of this project a) assumes 
a lack of nice people already in the communities who also have deep 
knowledge of that community and b) that it would put 'nice people' into 
the middle of a community without sufficient knowledge and thus put off 
a new person who is looking for answers first and not necessarily niceness.
> * Would you be willing to be on the Working Group?
>
I can't commit time to that right now, so I'm just sharing my opinions.  
I look keeping track of the project and hearing more about it as it 
progresses.

> * Are there specific suggestions you would make to improve the project?
Instead of working from a place that suggests a scarcity or lack of nice 
people in existing communities, ask communities to shout out who their 
'nice people' are and then try to pair up the Trainees with those folks, 
shadowing a nice & knowledgeable person instead of "here's some docs on 
how to be a nice person in this community you're new to" and now you're 
on your own, thrown into the deep end.
>
> If I don't hear much in reply, I'll try to get this going myself with 
> just me on the Working Group. I'm prety excited about that already. 
> More conversation, discussion, and help on the Working Group would be 
> lovely.
>
> -- Asheesh.
> _________________
Thank you Asheesh for your persistent optimism, willingness to take 
action, and great flow of ideas!

Cheers,
Lukas