The forked elephant in the room

[Mike Parker]

On Wednesday, 17 January 2024 at 18:28:33 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:

>
> The problem is not what you did in this specific case; it's the 
> fact that, by the time he submitted the DIP 1036e PR, Adam's 
> relationship with D's leadership had *already* deteriorated so 
> much that he felt only drastic action would get his point 
> across.
>
> What you (and Walter, and Andrei) could, and should, have done 
> is spent the last 10+ years treating Adam with the respect and 
> professionalism he deserved. What you can, and must, do now is 
> (a) determine why you failed to do so, and (b) make plans to 
> ensure that those failures do not recur in the future (either 
> with Adam, should he return, or with other contributors).

Respect and professionalism is a two-way street. I've seen some 
of these interactions up close and I can tell you it is not in 
anyway 100% Walter/Andrei/Atila's fault. There's plenty of blame 
to go around. Especially in this specific case with Adam. I'm not 
going to into details, but you've seen the same Discord comments 
I've seen, Paul. And you weren't in the two meetings where some 
of us got to see live and in person version. This was going on as 
we were working with him to overcome the issues he had with us. I 
just really take issue with Walter always getting all the blame 
here.

Yes, the DLF needs to find ways to prevent contributors from 
feeling disrespected, ignored, undervalued, and all of that, and 
we need to find ways to help them overcome those feelings if they 
do arise. But please, let's also remember that everyone on the 
DLF team is just as human as the contributors. We deserve the 
same respect and professionalism as everyone else.

There have been multiple occasions when I've gone into the 
Discord server and regretted it, asking myself why I'm even 
bothering to stick around here when the people I'm working for 
keep crapping all over us and the work we're doing. It got to the 
point where I dreaded opening it up. Being called stupid, fools, 
morons, m*fers, and such is the very opposite of a morale booster.

What I would like to see is a commitment from everyone in the D 
community to treat everyone else with professionalism and 
respect. Anyone who is unhappy with a specific decision, process, 
incident, whatever, is welcome to email me and let me know about 
it. I'm happy to set up a meeting with the appropriate people to 
discuss it in person, or facilitate an email conversation with 
them, or whatever is needed to work it out. Too often, people 
don't tell us specifically what their root gripes are until 
they've reached the boiling point, and by then it's too late. So 
please, let us know before that point comes.

And while we're at it, can we please get rid of this "us vs. 
them" mentality? We are all here for the same overarching reason: 
we're enthusiastic about the D programming language. We all want 
it to succeed, and we all want it to help us achieve our ideas 
and our goals. It doesn't matter if you're on the DLF team, an 
employee at one of the D shops, self-employed, or doing this just 
for fun. So let's please keep that in mind when we're interacting 
with each other.